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The Alaska Board of Fisheries is cutting chum salmon fishing by 30 per cent in southwest Alaska.
Alaskan Native communities, who have been facing increasing food insecurity from lack of salmon in the Yukon River for years, say the move is a good first step.
In the interior of Alaska, along the Yukon River, is Beaver, a remote village that has relied on chum salmon for years as a main food source. The closest grocery store is in Fairbanks, 170 km due south by plane, and food has to be flown in at a high price.
Rhonda Pitka is the Chief of the Village of Beaver. She said 2019 was the last good fishing year before the “Yukon River salmon crash.”
“The salmon sustained us for so long. It was our lifeline,” she said. “We live in these incredibly cold communities in the winter. So when we were fishing in the summer we will put enough away for all winter long and then we would have enough to share with our relatives in their communities.”
Along with being a staple food source, Pitka said salmon are also culturally important. Used for potlaches, funerals, as well as bartering and trading for food in other communities. The loss of access to salmon, Pitka said, has been devastating.
“Sometimes there is such a loss of hope with the loss of culture around salmon that people turn to suicide,” she said. “It’s been detrimental and very harmful to our communities.”
Pitka hopes for tougher conservation efforts, but thinks the Alaska Board of Fisheries is divided on the issue. The board’s decision to reduce fishing was a split vote of 4-3.
Dennis Zimmermann, chair of the Yukon Salmon Sub-committee, said he’s pleased with the announcement.
Although not as well known as Chinook salmon, he said chum are equally important. Along with being important to the diets of Alaskan First Nations, the fish also “have a huge role in the environment like for bears and trees and those general ecosystem benefits. And they bottomed out, unfortunately, not long after the Yukon River Chinook.”
Even in death, the salmon play an important ecological role, Zimmerman said.
“Their carcasses are part of the nutrients that we need in our ecosystems,” he said.
Decision will affect future generations
In a release, the Tanana Chiefs Conference, a consortium of 42 villages in the Alaska interior, says it “recognizes this action as a meaningful step toward protecting Yukon River salmon and moving Alaska toward more balanced and equitable conservation management across the state.”
The decision will reduce the time boats can fish in a commercial fishing area on the state’s southwest coast during periods when vulnerable chum salmon stocks are present – giving them a better opportunity to make their way into the Yukon River, and go through their lifecycle.
The affected area, known as Area M, includes the Alaskan Penninsula and part of the Aleutian Island chain. It’s an area where the fishing industry is commercially important and includes several fish processing plants.
“This decision is an investment in the long-term health of our salmon populations so our children and grandchildren can participate in subsistence one day,” said chairman Brian Ridley of the Tanana Chiefs Conference in the release.
“For several years our people have lived with empty smokehouses and uncertainty about how they will feed their families. Today’s action shows that those voices were heard, and we appreciate the Board taking meaningful steps toward protecting our salmon.”
