Dip-netters criticize potential restrictions
Published Friday, October 10, 2008
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Stumble It!FAIRBANKS — Frank Therrell sat at a table facing the state Board of Fisheries on Thursday night in Fairbanks as he held a frozen Copper River red salmon wrapped in white freezer paper.
The 58-year-old from Ester told the seven-member board that he has lived in Alaska since 1969, and he has been dip netting red salmon out of the Copper River at Chitina for as long as he can remember. He has five mouths to feed and “they sure do like their fish,” Therrell said.
Then he turned to the crowd of approximately 50 people at the Alpine Lodge and displayed the frozen fish.
“In case anybody doesn’t know what I’m talking about, this is it,” Therrell said.
He turned his attention back to the fish board members.
“I drive 700 miles round-trip every year hopefully trying to intercept some of these fish,” he said. “It’s up to you guys to make sure they’re there.”
Then he asked the board members how many of them had ever dip netted at Chitina.
“It’s the closest thing you’re ever going to get to being a bear,” Therrell said, drawing a laugh from the crowd. “Take care of it.”
Therrell was one of a dozen Fairbanks residents who testified before the Board of Fisheries during a special meeting on Thursday night to take public comment on proposed changes to subsistence, personal use, sport and commercial fishing in the Copper River Basin and Prince William Sound.
The fish board will meet in Cordova from Dec. 1-7 to decide on the proposals, but because the fish board was holding a work session in Fairbanks this week to prepare for the meeting, it offered Fairbanks residents a chance to testify.
While Therrell didn’t address any specific proposals, he summed up the sentiment of most speakers and spectators at the meeting — dip-netters have as much, if not more, right to Copper River salmon as commercial fishermen — and they should be classified as subsistence fishermen, not personal use.
Dennis Manning of Fairbanks, a longtime dip-netter, said he supplies his immediate and extended family — about 40 people total — with Copper River salmon.
“To me, the word subsistence means you utilize that fishery to feed your family; that’s what we do,” said Manning, who told the board it took he and four other dip-netters 51 hours to catch 46 fish this summer.
Manning said he believes commercial fishermen have a right to the fish, too, but not as many as they’re getting. Dip-netters catch an average of about 120,000 fish a year at Chitina, and Cordova’s commercial fishing fleet catches about 1.2 million.
“I think there’s needs to be some equity brought into it,” Manning said.
Virgil Umphenour and Mike Kramer of Fairbanks spoke in favor of keeping commercial fishing closed until at least 5,000 salmon pass a sonar counter at Miles Lake, about 70 miles from the mouth of the Copper River, to prevent overharvesting early stocks of wild salmon.
“The first fish to come in the Copper River are wild stocks; they need protection,” said Umphenour, a former fish board member and owner of a fish processing plant in Fairbanks.
Kramer echoed Umphenour, saying, “the Copper River is the primary fishery for thousands of Interior Alaska families” and commercial fishermen are exploiting the resource.
“We believe the early-run fish are being harvested at an unsustainable level in the commercial fishery,” said Kramer, who submitted proposals to restrict commercial fishermen. “As far as I know, the Copper River is the only river in Alaska where the mouth of the river is sealed off for commercial fishing before any fish are documented in the river.”
Hal Hume of Fairbanks also urged the board to protect wild king salmon stocks in the Copper River, which he said are “in a sad state of decimation” as a result of “abuse” by commercial fishermen. There are fewer kings in the river now than there used to be, and they are smaller, said Hume, who has lived in Alaska for more than 50 years.
Hume told the board about a Father’s Day fishing trip he took with his sons and grandsons on the Gulkana River this year.
“This year we spent four days there, and there were six of us,” Hume said. “We went home with four fish, three of which were under 20 pounds.
“That’s not a very exciting fishing trip, especially when you’re trying to teach your grandchildren how to fish and you’re bragging about the abundance of Alaska,” he said.
Bonnie Williams, the lone Fairbanks representative on the Board of Fisheries, was surprised more people didn’t show up to speak, but she wasn’t surprised by what she heard from those who did — they want their fish.
“We’ll hear the other side in Cordova,” she said, referring to testimony from commercial fishermen to restrict dip-netters and increase fishing time for commercial fishers.
Board chairman John Jensen of Petersburg also was surprised by the low turnout.
“I really thought there would be more folks here,” he said. “I thought there might be 50 or 60.”
Jensen said the testimony provided Thursday will be considered at the meeting in Cordova.
Contact staff Writer Tim Mowry at 459-7587.
Community Discussion
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As long as the citizens of Alaska are going to be involved with the commercial fisherman for access to Alaskas resources (fish), we will get screwed. You can just plan on it. It all starts with our Juneau polititions. We are getting screwed by the commercial fisherman and the folks that theoretically represent us. It almost sounds like a conversation about fuel in Alaska for some reason.
Commercial fisherman, from Seattle-
Those G*****n dipnetters!, I only made $75,000 this WEEK instead of $100,000, I don't care if they want a cooler full of salmon- I WANT MY MONEY!!!!
Commercial Fishing is one of the last "great" American slaughters of wildlife still happening today, greed and animal harvesting do not mix.....
(animals will ALWAYS lose as harvesters only see $$$, not animals)
I wish the state would fix that road to Haley creek ! It's a real dangerouse pain in the buns getting back there, especially for us older folks,
I didn't even know about the meeting otherwise I would have been there and spoken a few words. Besides, the fish we catch are beyond the clasp of the commercial fisherman.. just because they have a bigger dipnet than us and lost 120,000 fish isnt our fault. How much more greedier are they going to get!?!? I agree with the article, they need to let so many fish hit that sonar before they get to start commercial fishing.. this year was a small one, just how many fish do you think we'll see in 4 years when the "small run babies" try and make it back...?
I picked my user name because of my appreciation for going to Chitna in the summer and Summit, Cantwell in the winter. In Alaska we are spoiled in our recreational opportunities. To just get in your truck and be in the wilderness in minutes is a magical thing. Be it wood chopping, hunting and fishing, hangin with your buds or family, real Alaskans are truly blessed. When you vote, vote for the person that understands this.
Understanding "wood chopping, hunting and fishing, hangin with your buds or family" does not qualify you to be president or even the lowliest public official, it's that kind of "bubba vote" that got dubya elected and he immediately began to run this country into the ground as effectively as every business he has had control of.
The Presidency is turning into a monarchy of the rich and weak.
The title of this article is "Dip-netters criticize potential restrictions". I've read this story three times now and still don't see any mention of these "potential restrictions". There's mention of "proposed changes to subsistence, personal use, sport and commercial fishing in the Copper River Basin and Prince William Sound." but no specifics.
Can someone help out here?
Tim, I'm a little disappointed. Usually your writing is some of, if not, the best of any of the DNM reporters. This falls well short of your usual high standards, containing few facts and more emotion.
Critisize the FDNM and look to what happens to the article.
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