Tag: aream

Fisheries Board Votes to Limit Restrictions on Area M Commercial Chum Harvest
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Fisheries Board Votes to Limit Restrictions on Area M Commercial Chum Harvest

Alaska’s Board of Fisheries has voted against a proposal to reduce significantly commercial fishing times and areas in the South Alaska Peninsula region known as Area M. Instead, the board this past weekend approved another measure to reduce fishing times in early June for salmon also sought by the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim (AYK) region to the north. The board’s decision on the intercept fishery of Chinook, sockeye and chum salmon came after several days of emotional testimony from fishermen and residents of Area M and the AYK, with both sides speaking out on the socioeconomic and cultural significance of chum salmon to their region. Proposal 140 would have amended the South Unimak and Shumagin Islands June Salmon Management Plan, written by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, to redu...
Testimony Challenges Exploitation of Alaska’s Area M Commercial Salmon Fleet
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Testimony Challenges Exploitation of Alaska’s Area M Commercial Salmon Fleet

Written testimony now up for consideration by the Alaska Board of Fisheries, which is meeting Feb. 20-25 in Anchorage, challenges allowing Area M commercial salmon harvesters to continue to exploit these declining mixed stock fisheries without restriction. The testimony, from University of Washington fisheries research professor Daniel Schindler, contends that allowing such harvests to continue is antithetical to the sustained yield principle of the Alaska Constitution and in direct conflict with Alaska’s Sustainable Salmon Policy. The 2022 commercial salmon harvest for Area M was estimated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game at 160.7 million fish, valued at about $720.4 million. That compared with a 2021 total harvest of 233.8 million fish valued at $643.9 million. Schindler’s ...