The mid-afternoon son silhouettes the beach side houses of Brevig Mission on the Bering Sea in Western Alaska in 2005. The village is one of several researchers plan to study for connections between climate change and changing patterns in subsistence fishing. Bob Hallinen/Anchorage Daily News photo
Live in Noatak or Selawik? Shishmaref or Grayling? Federal researchers want to know what climate change is doing to your subsistence fishing.
For the first time, the Federal Subsistence Board approved research projects looking for links between global warming and fishing in three regions of the state, officials said today.
The projects will last three to four years and cost a total of $930,000, according to Office of Subsistence Management.
Researchers will talk to village households about their traditional harvests, historical patterns and health of the fish -- and any changes they’ve noticed over time, said Larry Buklis, fisheries division chief.
The research is part of a monitoring plan that includes 41 different projects approved by the board Tuesday in Anchorage. Buklis said this is the first time the board has specifically targeted climate change and what it means for subsistence fishing in Alaska.
“That’s a new dimension that’s current and relevant," he said.
In the Bering Strait region, researchers will visit Shismaref, Wales, Stebbins, Teller and Brevig Mission, over the next four years, asking residents how weather patterns might be affecting non-salmon fisheries such as whitefish, Buklis said.
That part of the project will cost $575,000.
In Northwest Alaska, the climate change research will target Noatak, Selawik and Unalakleet at a cost of $185,000 over three years. Along the Yukon, they’ll visit Grayling, Nulato, Koyukuk, Allakaket, Fort Yukon at a cost of $170,000 over three years.
The information can be used not only for managing subsistence fishing in Alaska, but as a baseline for understanding changes in the environment, Buklis said.
Speaking of the Yukon River, the board also approved $150,000 for a three-year study of historical king salmon runs.
I was curious if this project was prompted by the outcry over the lack of subsistence king salmon fishing last season on the Yukon, but Buklis said all the projects were proposed in late 2008 and early 2009.
This week’s board meeting comes as the feds are calling for a sweeping review of federal subsistence management in Alaska, labeling the current system "broken." That process continues tomorrow as federal officials plan to meet with chairman of regional advisory councils.
Related:
-- AFN calls for Native and rural subsistence priority on all Alaska lands (Alaska Newspapers)
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