Matanuska-Susitna Borough

Mayors Ask for Fish Meeting 2020

Mat-Su | Patty Sullivan | Tuesday, October 17, 2017

The Alaska Board of Fisheries Work Session started this morning at the Egan Center in Anchorage. Mat-Su Borough Fish & Wildlife Commissioners submitted a letter from our four mayors requesting Mat-Su as the meeting location for the 2020 regulatory finfish meeting for Upper Cook Inlet. 
 
The "Fish Board" meetings for finfish and Upper Cook Inlet occur every three years, often in Anchorage. The communities on the Kenai also have asked for this 2020 meeting to be relocated in Kenai.  
 
Attached is the letter from Mat-Su Mayor Vern Halter, Wasilla Mayor Bert Cottle, Palmer Mayor Edna DeVries, and Houston Mayor Virgie Thompson.  
 
Among the top reasons:
The Mat-Su is the second largest community in Alaska. It has long been the fastest growing and it has not yet been host to this important meeting on salmon and Upper Cook Inlet.  
It makes sense that Alaska's highest fisheries regulating board should meet at the headwaters where much of the salmon stock begins for Upper Cook Inlet. Mat-Su rivers historically have supported the largest runs of chinook, coho, pink, and chum salmon and yet the Mat-Su Basin has eight of the state's 14 stocks of concern. 
Holding a meeting in the Mat-Su will help the Fisheries Board make informed decisions on these complex, mixed-stock fisheries.
 
The work session for the Alaska Board of Fisheries runs through Thursday. Here is a link to some of the topics:
http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/regulations/regprocess/fisheriesboard/pdfs/2017-2018/ws/notice.pdf
 
For more information contact Public Affairs Director Patty Sullivan at 861-8577 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
 

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Documents

4 Mayors' Letter to Alaska Board of Fisheries