Cook Inlet fleet cuts off MAT-SU from fish

PALMER—Once again, the commercial fishing fleet for the Upper Cook Inlet enjoys an abundance of fish, while upstream the Susitna drainage gets but a trickle.

On Tuesday less than 100 cohos came across the weir at the Deshka River in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough. Less than 600 sockeyes passed through the weir on Fish Creek Tuesday. This year appears to be one of the lowest chum salmon harvests in decades. Salmon returns here overall have been dismal at best.

Assembly Member Tom Kluberton chairs the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Sportsmen's Committee. "If this is not addressed in a matter of days, the commercial fleet may reduce the number of fish escaping into the Susitna drainage to a level that will be devastating to MAT-SU families who rely on salmon for their table and to the guiding and fishing-related tourism industries in the area as well," Kluberton said.

The Alaska Division of Commercial Fisheries is not acting quickly enough to protect the northern district stocks as they migrate through the central district of Cook Inlet.

Borough Manager John Duffy is making a plea for relief to state officials.

"We believe that any time the drift fleet is allowed to fish south of the Blanchard Line, especially at this time of year, the fish bound for the northern district get intercepted," Duffy said. "It would be more prudent to first allow the northern district to reach its escapement goals and then allow commercial fishing to occur, not before."

Drift fleets fish on, benefiting from emergency openings for fishing, while the families, sportsfishermen, setnetters, and tourists in the MAT-SU face possible closures. If the Susitna drainage is closed to fishing for sockeye, as is under consideration, it will be the third year in a row.

Thursday the Division did partly close commercial fishing south of the Blanchard line, intending to reduce the exploitation rate on the Yentna River and Susitna River sockeye, the state web site states.

"That's like closing the gate after the cows are gone," said Bruce Knowles, a member of the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Sportsmen's Committee.

For the first time in three years the ADF&G Commissioner has not closed the center corridor in Cook Inlet (from Kasilof north to Anchorage), Knowles said. The extra time allowed drift fishermen to kill 400,000 sockeye around Kaligan Island, Knowles said.

Fishing is a major economic driver for the tourism industry of Alaska.

The Blue Ribbon Sportsmen's Committee was rekindled last year to give MAT-SU anglers a voice. Low escapements into MAT-SU waters over the past few years were brought to the attention of then incoming Mayor Curt Menard, who reinstated the committee last fall to combat the problem.

"Without up-to-date, comprehensive economic data, the central role of sport angling in the state's economy will continue to be underestimated and taken lightly in public policy decisions," Knowles said.

In 2005, Cook Inlet commercial fishermen enjoyed a record harvest. That harvest is but three percent of the total statewide harvest. By contrast more than 65 percent of statewide sport fishing, subsistence, and personal use fishing occurs in Cook Inlet. Sportfishing in Alaska is a $1 billion industry, according to a federal and state study, yet doesn't get the recognition it deserves, Knowles said. In Cook Inlet, alone, sportfishing will bring in $450 million, he said.

An economic survey will be completed in 2008 to show the economic force sportfishing holds in the MAT-SU.

For more information, call Assembly Member Tom Kluberton at 841-7107 or Borough Manager John Duffy at 745-9689, or Committee Member Bruce Knowles at 232-5873.