Salty
2009-02-02 18:45:40
Don't think for one minute it can't be taken away from us. The seasons, quotas, areas we can fish or can't fish are all the result of political decisions that were hard fought.
I gave a presentation at the young fisherman's leadership conference a few years ago where I enumerated them.
Here are a few examples:
Removal of Fish Traps;
State management instead of Federal Management for state waters;
Numerous fights to protect fisheries habitat from logging and mining in SE including ongoing battles in the Yakutat area;
Tough fights reducing high seas interception of salmon;
Battles to get the gillnetters out of the sloughs on the Stikine to rebuild those stocks;
Finfish farming ban in Alaska;
Organizing of the Regional Aquaculture Associations;
Extensive publicity marketing wild Alaska Salmon;
Battles to keep pesticide spraying in salmon watersheds minimized;
Obtaining the Marine Stewardship Council seal for sustainability.
And we have ongoing battles to:
Convince state and federal managers to manage the guided sport fishery in SE Alaska;
Keep our share of the US Canada Treaty salmon; (Actually we just lost a significant battle
on that front.)
Maintain the troll share of the value of hatchery salmon in SE Alaska;
And on and on.
I must go transfer money to pay for a significant quality upgrade on my back deck now. Maybe we should start a thread about what each of us are doing this year to improve the quality of the salmon we produce.
So long for now.