UPDATED: Yukon fishermen ignore closure, catch kings

Posted by thevillage

Posted: June 29, 2009 - 2:07 pm

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A group of Yukon River fishermen, upset with the state's controversial move to slash king salmon fishing on the Yukon River, ignored the closure Friday and went fishing anyway, the Tundra Drums reports.

Talk of such civil disobedience had been simmering for weeks. Now it's here. How will the state respond?

UPDATE: “We were ready to make a statement. We were ready to send a message to the fishery managers, to the governor, and to big business – meaning the trawl fishery. That you waste, you know, you’re allowed to waste all this fish. We only take a small fraction of the runs,” said Nick P. Andrew Jr., a Marshall fisherman and member of the Ohagamuit tribal government.

He's talking about the belief among many Yukon River fishermen that they have to sacrifice their king salmon seasons while the Bering Sea pollock fleet wastes tens of thousands of salmon a year.

It was Andrew who described the protest fishing trip to the Tundra Drums. He was one of six fishermen who went out Friday night and caught 100 kings – at a time when the state says no one is supposed to be subsistence fishing in that part of the river.

“I’m one of the most wanted people on the river," he said today.

“Law enforcement came out yesterday and asked questions," Andrew said at one point. "We developed amnesia. Let me put it that way."

So what’s the state’s response? Will they arrest the fishermen for misdemeanors? Issue fines?

I struck out today, but it’s going to be crucial to get a decision-maker in Palin’s administration on the record to talk about this. Especially if other villages are tempted to follow Marshall’s lead.

The governor’s office kicked questions about the protest to the Department of Public Safety. I’d hoped to talk to Commissioner Joe Masters or the head of the wildlife troopers. But trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said they were in meetings today.

Troopers are already investigating the reports of illegal fishing out of Marshall, Peters said. “If they encounter somebody who is violating the regulations, they will more than likely be cited for what they’re doing.”

Palin’s rural adviser, John Moller, is on personal leave. I’d also hoped to talk to Fish and Game Commissioner Denby Lloyd. He was busy too.

Fish and Game spokeswoman Jennifer Yuhas sent this statement: “Our department’s mission is management. Management decisions are designed to guarantee sustainability of the resource, and the users of the resource are at the heart of these decisions. Protests like those reported today are unfortunate whenever they occur because they do not consider the long term health of the resource or future generations of users.”

Yeah – what about that? If people catch kings when they’re not supposed to, won’t that hurt runs in the future?

Andrew’s take is that the state is trying to protect Canada-bound Chinook, but those salmon have already safely passed the village on their way upstream.

CONTROLLING THE MESSAGE

Camille Boliver, a 73-year-old retired fisherman in Marshall, said he usually needs 100 king salmon to feed his family each winter. This year, he only has three hanging in his freezer.

The protesting fishermen caught them on their clandestine trip and gave them to him, Boliver said. He's happy to have them. “The doctor told my wife that she got a heart problem. So I don’t know. We’ll have to struggle some way. Try to buy fish from somebody.”

That’s the kind of image that sticks with you – and both sides of the fishery debate will be looking to tell the story on their own terms this week.

The Association of Village Council Presidents, which represents 56 Yukon-Kuskokwim villages, plans to bring reporters on a tour of four lower Yukon River villages tomorrow to make their case. Meantime, Palin wrote on her Twitter feed that her rural advisor, John Moller gave an interview in Emmonak to CNN but said that because he talked about “good news” the interview probably won't hit the airwaves.

So is what the good news? That's not clear, but Palin also Tweeted that 50 percent of Emmonak residents have met their subsistence needs. “Others confident they can do the same,” she wrote.

Freelance photo-journalist and blogger Dennis Zaki -– who sometimes works with CNN -– counters that people in Emmonak he’s talked with say the 50 percent figure isn’t true. “These people get pissed when I tell them what Moller said about 50 percent having their quota,” he wrote in an e-mail.

And so it goes, with the potential for more protest fishing.

“Other villages that need king salmon should do the same thing,” said AVCP President Myron Naneng, an outspoken Palin critic. If the state is so worried about the king salmon run on the Yukon, it should have pushed for tougher restriction on the pollock fleet that wastes thousands of king salmon a year, he said.

Really, I’d love to be able to get Palin on the phone to talk about this stuff. Haven’t interviewed her about it since February:

And KTUU's report on Emmonak, using Zaki's video:

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