King season starts with a snag — Catch-and-release restrictions in place as early run begins

Fishing restrictions announced:

• From May 16 through June 30 from the Kenai River mouth upstream to Skilak Lake, and in the Moose River from its confluence with the Kenai upstream to the Sterling Highway bridge, king salmon 20 inches or greater in length and less than 55 inches in length may not be possessed or retained, may not be removed from the water, and must be released immediately. Harvest of king salmon less than 20 inches or greater than 55 inches in length is still allowed.

• From July 1 to July 14 in the Kenai from Fish and Game regulatory markers approximately 300 yards downstream from the mouth of Slikok Creek upstream to the outlet of Skilak Lake and in the Moose River from its confluence with the Kenai upstream to the Sterling Highway bridge, king salmon 20 inches or greater in length and less than 55 inches in length may not be possessed or retained, may not be removed from the water and must be released immediately. Harvest of king salmon less than 20 inches or greater than 55 inches in length is still allowed.

• Use of bait is not allowed in the Kenai River from the regulatory markers 300 yards downstream from the mouth of Slikok Creek upstream to the outlet of Skilak Lake, and in the Moose River from its confluence with the Kenai to the Sterling Highway bridge.

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

Ker-plunk.

Rather than that being the hopeful sound of a lure hitting the water, it more represents the sinking feeling among anglers that the king salmon fishing season on the Kenai River is already off to a poor start, before it even opens Thursday. On May 9, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced restrictions to catch-and-release and trophy fishing only in the Kenai.

According to the department, the restrictions are being put in place to conserve the early run and help it meet its Board of Fisheries-mandated optimal escapement goal of 5,300 to 9,000 fish. The preseason forecast for the early run estimates a total of about 5,300 fish, which would put it on par with the lowest runs measured in 28 years — similar in abundance to the scant 2012 early run, on which fishing was closed midseason last year. The estimate of 5,300 fish is less than half the size of the average run strength from 1986 to 2012 of 14,000 fish.

“There is little indication to date of a change in the low chinook production trend observed statewide. It is therefore prudent to start the early run fishery as catch-and-release until in-season data indicates some harvest can be allowed or, alternatively, further restriction is necessary to meet the (optimum escapement goal),” according to the emergency order issued May 9.

While bad news such as this is never welcome to anglers, it’s even less welcome, particularly to fishing guides, coming as it did just a week before the season opens.

“I think they should have announced it a lot earlier and not put the guide component in a bind like they did. They announced it the same week the fishery opens — that’s crazy. I just think it was handled poorly,” said Dwight Kramer, chair of the Kenai Area Fisherman’s Coalition.

He said he supports the department’s decision to enact restrictions, given that the department’s early run management plan calls for an optimum escapement goal of at least 5,300 fish, and the forecast is predicting only 5,300 fish.

“I’m all for conservation of the early run,” Kramer said. “They were already at the minimum escapement goal in the forecast before any harvest. So I think they were stuck — they had to do this.”

But Kramer questions why the department waited so long to announce the restrictions. The early run forecast was released April 17.

“That’s when they should have done it,” he said.

Begich: Shipping needs changes in Alaska — Senator speaks out about maritime infrastructure, evils of ‘Frankenfish’

By Naomi Klouda

Homer Tribune

Alaska’s climate change conditions mean new opportunities for shipping and a need to develop ports and harbors around the state, U.S. Senator Mark Begich said during a visit to the Kenai Peninsula on Sunday.

“Oil and gas development means we will need a fleet of ships to service supplies. Our ports are undersized to handle it,” he said. Equipment like icebreakers and a greater Coast Guard presence further north are needed.

“I will work to ensure the Coast Guard and NOAA have the personnel, ships, icebreakers and infrastructure they need to accomplish their missions which are critical to our nation’s commerce and security,” he said.

Begich came to Homer for an afternoon visit at the Kachemak Bay Campus to talk about his work in the Senate. In foreseeing the impacts of a changing environment, he believes Alaska’s ports are woefully unprepared for the demands of the future.

Support industries currently located in Seattle will need to “move up” or Alaska businesses need to step up. This is good job-creation, he said.

“There are 100 ships in Seattle and we need them here,” he said.

Homer’s Port and Harbor projects are getting a closer look from Begich as he advocates on behalf of gaining more infrastructure funding.

He is also launching a war against genetically engineered salmon, known as “Frankenfish.” GE salmon would be banned under legislation introduced by Begich, who is chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere, Fisheries and the Coast Guard.

He introduced two pieces of legislation. The first would make it illegal to produce, sell or ship GE salmon in the U.S., unless the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration finds it would have no significant impact. He is the lead sponsor of the bill, called the Prevention of Escapement of Genetically Altered Salmon in the United States (PEGASUS). His second bill would require any GE salmon product to be labeled as genetically engineered, a proposal the FDA has rebuffed.

“Alaska has been supplying the world with nutritious salmon for decades,” Begich said. “We cannot afford to experiment with the world’s largest wild salmon stocks without the certainty that these fake fish won’t pose a serious environmental risk, especially to wild salmon and their habitat.”

Ideas afloat — Kenai fishing task force hears plans to change management

By Jenny Neyman

File photo by Patrice Kohl, Redoubt Reporter. A stringer of sockeye salmon were fished from the Kenai River at River Bend. The Upper Cook Inlet Task Force is mulling ways to better balance management of the Kenai’s sockeye and king salmon returns and fisheries.

Redoubt Reporter

“There’s nothing worse than not fishing then having to go to meetings to talk about not fishing.”

That jest, from Jim Butler, a member of the Upper Cook Inlet Task Force, drew chuckles from the crowd assembled for the Jan. 14 meeting at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai. Though it was a fitting sentiment for the six hours of detailed, science-heavy, acronym-laden discussion, the trumping sentiment of the day was one of progress.

“I think this is a starting point. It’s trying to make the best of Armageddon, if there’s a way to do that,” said task force member Ken Coleman, a set-net fisherman. “… We are trying to make sure there’s a place in the sun for both of us. How do we achieve that is the art of the deal. We’re heading that way, I think.”

Three proposals to change fishery management plans for the 2013 fishing season were submitted for discussion. Each aim to prevent 2013 from being a repeat of the disastrous fishing season of 2012 — with sport and set-net fisheries shut down — should similar factors of a late and/or low king return amid a robust sockeye run again be the case.

East Side Set-Net Proposal

The set-netters’ proposal suggests several changes to the Kenai River Late-Run King Salmon Management Plan, including:

New late-run Kenai king escapement goal ready for review

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

The new numbers are out, setting the goalposts to which the late run of Kenai River king salmon will be managed. Scientists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently released a draft interim escapement goal recommendation calling for 15,000 to 30,000 late-run kings to escape fishing nets and hooks to spawn in the Kenai. The new sustainable escapement goal is a decrease from the previous range of 17,800 to 37,500 kings.

The decrease doesn’t represent a change in philosophy or priority in what the goal is meant to achieve, said fishery scientist Steve Fleischman, who, along with Tim McKinley, authored the draft report. As with all salmon stocks in the state, late-run Kenai kings are managed to provide sustained yield, balancing conservation of the stock — getting enough fish upstream to spawn — and utilization of the resource by fishermen. The lower goal range represents a change in data, not a shift in priority toward stock conservation vs. fishery opportunity, Fleischman said.

“What’s changed is we feel that we have much better information than we’ve had before,” he said.

Last of the salmon people — EPA assessment describes culture of Natives still supported by wild salmon, clean water

By Jenny Neyman

Redoubt Reporter

In the battle over whether or not, or under what conditions, to allow development of the Pebble Mine prospect, much of the ammunition lobbed back and forth has been in the form of very large, ultimately very quantifiable numbers — an estimated 80 billion pounds of copper, over 100 million ounces of gold and 5.6 billion pounds of molybdenum; an open pit mine potentially two miles wide and several thousand feet deep with up to 10 billion tons of waste material stored in two tailings lakes held back by four-plus miles of dam; the potential of thousands of jobs in construction and mine operation; located in the headwaters of the largest wild salmon run in the world, where commercial fishing and related jobs account for about 75 percent of local employment.

Yet, not all factors in the decisions to be made can be entered into a calculator, such as the potential effects to Native villages of the region that rely on wild salmon and clean water as a cornerstone of not only their diet and economy, but their culture and the sustainability of their way of life. How do non-numeric concepts, like freedom, family and tradition, fit into equations balancing the millions of dollars worth of value in the Bristol Bay watershed’s commercial and sportfishing industries, or the potential billions of dollars worth of minerals in the ground?

Two anthropology professors from Kenai Peninsula College, Dr. Alan Boraas with the Kenai River Campus in Soldotna and Dr. Catherine Knott of the Kachemak Bay Campus in Homer, were tasked with qualifying the unquantifiable elements of the potential effects to Native villages of the Nushagak and Kvichak river watersheds, should the salmon and clean water they rely on be compromised.

The nature of their findings is clear — salmon are inextricably important to the history, culture, spirituality and sustainability of the villages. But how to weight those findings in the overarching reckoning to be made about large-scale mining in the region, however, is less clear.

Fishing for answers — Department representatives hear comments from fishermen

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Ken Coleman, a commercial set-net fisherman, asks a question of a panel of state and NOAA representatives in Soldotna on Friday to answer questions about a federal economic disaster declaration regarding low king returns to Cook Inlet this summer. Representatives from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game also spoke with the 100-plus audience, at the meetings hosted by the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association.

Redoubt Reporter

Representatives from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game got what they asked for in a public meeting hosted by the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association on Friday at Peninsula Grace Brethren Church on Kalifornsky Beach Road.

“This is a great opportunity for me to speak to you, but also to hear from you about your questions and concerns,” said Cora Campbell, commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

Campbell, along with Jeff Regnart, Division of Commercial Fish, and Charlie Swanton, Division of Sport Fish, spent two hours being peppered with questions and emotionally charged statements from the crowd, particularly regarding the closure of sportfishing for king salmon in the Kenai and Kasilof rivers this summer, and the subsequent closure of the east-side Cook Inlet commercial set-net fishery for sockeye.

A caveat in the late-run Kenai king management plan requires the department to close commercial sockeye set netting if in-river king fishing is shut down due to low king runs, a measure passed by the Board of Fisheries intended to spare kings from set nets in order to boost escapement in the rivers.

Several in the audience questioned the wisdom and fairness of that requirement. Department representatives acknowledged that this method of protecting kings lacks finesse.

“It’s a very blunt tool,” Campbell said of that provision of the management plan. “But it indicates that if we’re projecting that we’re not going to meet escapement for late-run Kenai kings, that the in-river fishery closes and the set-net fishery closes. That was something that the Board of Fish adopted years ago. That’s what the management plan directs us to do.”

Regnart was asked if he thought the plan was an effective way of managing the fisheries in season. It gets the job done, he said, though the consequences can be steep.

“It does it in a way that can be quite difficult. Everybody here in this room felt the weight of that plan this year. As the commissioner described, it’s a blunt tool. It’ll get the job done, so I guess my answer to this would be yes, but it does it in a way that the users can pay a very high price,” he said.

Casting about for answers — Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association to host town hall-style meeting with Fish and Game commissioner

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. With plenty of time on their hands due to the commercial set-net fishing closures imposed by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in July, many set-netters, such as Aaron Kershner, a crewman for a Kasilof set-netter, protested the closure in front of the Fish and Game offices on Kalifornsky Beach Road.

Redoubt Reporter

The nets are back in storage, the boats are hauled ashore for winter and the sockeye salmon have pushed into the Kenai and Kasilof rivers to spawn. The 2012 Cook Inlet commercial sockeye fishing season is finished, yet east-side commercial sockeye set-net fishermen, and others affected by restrictions and closures of the Upper Cook Inlet salmon fisheries this summer, still have active questions regarding management of the fisheries, as well as what assistance might come from a federal disaster declaration of Alaska fisheries issued Sept. 13.

The Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association is hosting a meeting Friday in hope of getting answers to those questions.

“This is for the community as a whole so anybody that has questions about economic relief or has questions about how the season went, or the future, and wants a chance to talk to the commissioner (of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game), this is what we’re offering,” said Paul Shadura, board director of the KPFA.

King salmon returns were low throughout several areas of the state this year, including to Cook Inlet. Fish and Game took a conservative approach to managing the area’s fisheries in order to preserve kings to help meet escapement goals in the Kenai and Kasilof rivers. Managers first enacted restrictions on in-river sport king fishing, then an all-out closure of in-river king fishing July 19. That triggered a caveat in the area’s king salmon management plan for a simultaneous closure of east-side commercial sockeye set-net fishing, to prevent the accidental mortality of kings that sometimes get caught in the set nets targeting sockeye salmon.

Though Fish and Game subsequently announced that the king run was late but not as drastically low as Fish and Game had thought it would be, that crumb of good news was too little, too late in the season for commercial set-net fishermen to salvage the fish and revenue they missed while their nets sat high and dry on the beach for all but a few openings in July.

The abysmal season left set-netters without revenue to pay their deckhands, fuel bills, site leases and other costs involved in commercial fishing, but with plenty of questions for Fish and Game, regarding the reliability of the department’s sonar king counting program, the wisdom of protecting kings to the point of allowing overescapement of sockeye by restricting commercial fishing, and many more.

“The department doesn’t seem to be willing to offer solutions and the commissioner is not willing to stand out on their own position and offer relief in-season using their authority, so then it comes into the political arena of the Board of Fish. The Board of Fish has its duties to allocate and set policies, and they’re supposed to be also concerned about conservation, which I’m sure they are, and development, which doesn’t seem to be a key consideration. I’m worried that it will be back in the political nature of the Board of Fish and less in the science-based accountability that’s required for good, sound fisheries management,” Shadura said.

Good data, bad run — Kenai sonar technology improves, documents paltry return of kings

By Jenny Neyman

Photos by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Data from the DIDSON sonar technology used to count king salmon in the Kenai River is displayed in videolike imagery onscreen, allowing biologists to count fish, measure them and observe their behavior. This image shows several fish swimming past the DIDSON king sonar site at mile 8.6 of the Kenai River.

Redoubt Reporter

The Kenai River sonar program tasked with counting king salmon is an evolving science not unlike the Kenai River itself, with twists, turns, snags and murkiness along the way to better clarity. The good news is that, with continued biological research, data analysis and the implementation of improved technology, sonar scientists with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game are confident they now have the best data ever produced on Kenai River king salmon abundance. The bad news, however, is the new-and-improved data shows that chinook abundance is and has been lower than previously thought.

The estimate of late-run kings coming into the river — 9,082 as of July 26 — is so far below the minimum escapement goal of 17,800 fish that fishery managers decided to enact drastic, unprecedented measures as of July 19. Those

A seal is seen passing the sonar beam.

measures are closing the river to all sportfishing for kings, banning retention of kings in the dip-net fishery, and closing down the commercial set-net fishery for sockeye along the east side of Cook Inlet to prevent Kenai- and Kasilof-bound kings from getting caught in the gillnets targeting the large run of sockeyes which also is heading into the rivers.

The management decisions spawned from the king-return estimate, shaping up to be the worst return on record, are having a disastrous effect locally, particularly economically — to tackle shops, outfitters and other fishing-related merchants, to sportfishing guides who would be taking clients to fish for kings in July, to other businesses that would get a boost from that tourism, and to the set-netters who have lost their chance at earning their livelihood this summer. With so many repercussions from the shutdown of both sportfishing for kings and east side set netting for sockeye, it’s little wonder people are voicing concerns about the efficacy of the management decisions and the validity of the sonar numbers on which they are based.

But sonar scientists firmly support the accuracy of the counts produced with the new, advanced technology in use at the king sonar site. Just because there has been a change in the king sonar program this year doesn’t mean the run estimate is flawed, said Steve Fleischman, a fishery scientist who analyzes the sonar data.

“I think there’s this impression out there that we’re kind of running by the seat of our pants, when in fact we know far more than we ever did before. We have far more information about what’s really going on out there. And it gets better every day because we learn more and more as we collect more data and as we make comparisons. The unfortunate part is that this is all happening during a downturn in the stock,” Fleischman said. “You could look at both sides of the coin there, it’s a good thing that we’re getting very good information at this point, because now is a very important time to have good information. We don’t want to be making the wrong decisions at this point. We don’t want to be incorrectly liberalizing or allowing the fishery to continue when the runs are very small like this.”

King concern — Fishermen rally in support of king run conservation

By Patrice Kohl

Photos by Patrice Kohl, for the Redoubt Reporter. Kenai River Professional Guide Association President Dave Goggia speaks about the importance of all user groups doing their share to preserve king runs.

For the Redoubt Reporter

Urged to do more with less, salmon fishermen are buckling down. Like Americans that once rationed sugar and butter to support war efforts, fishermen are pulling nets and lures from the water to support conservation efforts. As of Monday, the late run of Kenai River king salmon looked like it might be headed for a fourth consecutive year of weak returns, following an already weak early run in June that included several restrictions on fishing.

At a Monday morning rally, sport anglers and fishing guides said they were particularly cognizant of the need for all fishing groups, including their own, to make sacrifices to allow adequate king salmon spawning.

“We’re going to err on the side of conservation in years of low abundance. And we’ll live with that, and that’s how it is,” said Kenai River Guide Association President Dave Goggia in a speech at the rally.

Long-term king fishery declines prompted more than 50 fishermen — mostly sport and guides — to gather outside the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office on Kalifornsky Beach Road in Soldotna. They asked that the department do more to protect the king fishery, whether through improved data-gathering or stronger restrictions.

While many of the fishermen questioned whether department restrictions fairly distributed the burden of conservation among fisheries groups, anger over allocation issues was tempered with a deeper concern for the well-being of the fishery.

“I hate to see king salmon fishing, which is so great here, start to dwindle,” said Rick Beckers, a local sport fisherman at the rally. “Then, before you know it, it will be done. It’ll be catch and release only.”

Landing a location — Group efforts smooth waves in Kasilof personal-use fishery

By Joseph Robertia

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Members of the Swensen, Boettcher, Renck and Knackstedt families pose in front of their Kasilof River personal-use fishery site, which is the farthest south site in the fishery and one coveted by many other fishermen.

Redoubt Reporter

A briny smell hung heavily in the cool morning air Friday as Mike Boettcher, of Soldotna, looked out over the blue-green expanse dotted with numerous, evenly spaced, bright-orange spheres. It was nearly 6 a.m., a time when many people are still sleeping or swatting at the snooze button, but there’s no lazy, late start on the first day of the Kasilof River personal-use set gillnet fishery.

“This is my first time starting at 6 a.m.,” said Boettcher. “I helped out last year, but this is my first time taking part from the start.”

Boettcher was set up in a spot that would allow him a substantial learning curve for future fishing years. He was in the site furthest to the south of the one-mile mark on the south side of the Kasilof River, known colloquially on the beach at the “first spot,” a highly coveted position due to it being the first net salmon will hit on their way toward the river.

The rules, as defined by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, state that personal-use set-net sites are on a “first come, first served” basis, and the placement of signs, running lines, buoys or dry nets on the beach in anticipation of the incoming tide does not constitute any prior right to a net location. Sites are established only when a net actually enters the water.

Working it out — Kasilof fishery nets cooperative spirit

By Joseph Robertia

Photos by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter

While participating in the Kasilof personal-use set gillnet fishery over the weekend, I couldn’t help but think how lucky I was. “Lucky” may seem like an odd word, considering we (my wife and the other families with which I share a net) have strained far more water than actually caught fish this year.

As I type this Monday afternoon, we have landed less than 25 sockeye salmon since we began fishing at 6 a.m. Friday, a paltry amount considering, in past years, we have brought in more than 100 fish from one pull after a six-hour tide cycle. But I know things could always be worse.

A fellow fisherman a few sites down from ours only caught one salmon and a loon Sunday, and it would be an gross understatement to say the by-catch bird got “pecky” as the fisherman cut apart his net to safely free the creature.

Still, it’s a great experience to take part in the personal-use fishery. Not just because we can fill our freezer with a delicious, high-protein meat that greatly offsets the cost of groceries bills. And not just because, other than when we are picking salmon out of our nets on the slack tides, we spend the remainder of the six-hour tide cycle reclining the beach with a cool beverage in hand, eating grilled food from our campfire, surrounded by friends and taking in the majestic views of Mount Redoubt across the way.

Small early kings offer big fun — Local anglers net success with early run Kasilof salmon

By Joseph Robertia

Photo courtesy of Jacob Gauthier. Jacob Gauthier and his friends netted an impressive take of three kings in one outing on the Kasilof River on Thursday.

Redoubt Reporter

One of the oldest clichés in the fishing phrase book is, “There’s a reason it’s called fishing, not catching.” But sayings such as this get passed around for a reason. The king salmon season is still weeks away from reaching a boil, and anglers typically have to work the water hard while waiting for still-simmering salmon runs to reach their peak. That’s what makes Jacob Gauthier’s catch last week so remarkable.

“We picked up three kings in one evening,” said the former Kasilof resident, who has recently moved to Anchorage for work.

He returns to where he was raised on weekends to drift the Kasilof River in the hope of seeing a slab of silver on the end of his line. While floating along in the lower river with two friends for the first time this season, he did what few others that evening were able to.

“We weren’t seeing many come in. We saw six or seven other boats and only a few guides were having some luck, so we were a bit surprised to pick up so many so early. We were just getting out to see what was going on.”

The water was low, as it usually is the time of year in the glacially fed Kasilof River. The young men had put in miles upriver, and had seen little action. It wasn’t until they were nearing the mouth that their luck began to turn with the tide.

“It was about three hours before the tide was to fold in. Everyone has a different opinion about when the best time is, but I’ve always believed the fish flood in with the high water, so a few hours after high tide is a good time to be out,” Gauthier said.