Mat-Su Salmon Crisis hearing before Board

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough and its fish team are making headlines, TV appearances, and testifying before the Alaska Board of Fisheries this weekend. Their goal: to show the State’s highest board of fishery regulators that allowing more fish to pass through the wall of commercial nets in Upper Cook Inlet to the spawning grounds of the Mat-Su drainage, is the solution to Mat-Su’s plummeting coho and sockeye salmon returns.

Acting Chair of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough’s Fish & Wildlife Commission, Larry Engel identifies the need for conservation in Upper Cook Inlet as being at a crisis level.

Watch Larry on video here.

The Mat-Su Borough Fish & Wildlife Commission presented 5 proposals for the Board of Fish to consider. Matanuska Valley Fish & Game Advisory Committee has 8 proposals. The two groups are working together for the sustainability of salmon in the Mat-Su.

Some 234 people are signed up to testify. Testimony stopped tonight at number 124. Among those who testified for the Mat-Su Borough, Mayor Larry DeVilbiss, Assembly Member Jim Colver, Commissioners Andy Couch, Howard Delo, Larry Engel, fisheries consultant Mac Minard, Commission staff Frankie Barker, advocate Terry Nininger, Tony Russ, former Mat-Valley Fish & Game Advisory Chair and present Mat-Valley Fish & Game Advisory Chair Jehnifer Ehmann. The Fish Board is considering 236 proposals. The meeting starts up again at 8 am Sunday.

The Fish Commission appeared in three media outlets on the first day of the meeting.

For interviews with the Borough’s Fish Commission call Public Affairs Director Patty Sullivan 907.355-0103 or  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Photos by Patty Sullivan/MSB. Video by Stefan Hinman/MSB. Top image: Mat-Su fish Commission on front page of Anchorage Daily News. Middle image: inside the "war room" at the Alaska Board of Fisheries.