Western Alaska tribes, outraged by bycatch, turn up the heat on fishery managers and trawlers from US and Canada

Published 2024년 4월 6일

Tridge summary

The Yukon River's king salmon populations have significantly declined, leading to a prolonged fishing ban that impacts Indigenous communities' traditional lifestyles. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council faces challenges in balancing the need for stricter bycatch regulations to protect salmon, against the trawl industry's concerns over economic losses. The debate extends to chum salmon bycatch management in the Bering Sea, with tribal leaders advocating for hard caps amid declining returns, while the pollock industry prefers voluntary measures. Genetic analysis complicates the issue by showing a significant portion of bycatch originates from non-local hatcheries. Additionally, rural tribal leaders struggle to participate in fish and game management systems, highlighting the cultural and economic impacts of declining salmon populations on their communities.

Disclaimer:The above summary was generated by Tridge's proprietary AI model for informational purposes.

Original content

It’s been three years since a crash in king salmon populations forced an outright ban on fishing for them in the Yukon River. And barring an unexpected recovery, residents along the river won’t be allowed to fish for them again for at least seven more years, under a new international management scheme recently signed by Alaska and Canadian managers. Earlier this spring, Maurice McGinty, a tribal leader from the village of Nulato, pulled out his last Mason jar of smoked Yukon king. “We have no more now,” said McGinty, 80. He added: “They are pushing us, and our traditional way of life, into a hole.” Imagine hearing and reading versions of McGinty’s story dozens of times, told by Indigenous people who live along the Yukon and another iconic subsistence river in Southwest Alaska, the Kuskokwim. That’s the reality this week for the policymakers on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the federal commission that regulates commercial fishing in the American waters of the Bering ...

Source: Adn