BOF PROPOSAL 248 - Forums Archive

yak2you2

2009-02-16 04:21:41

Prop 248. In the early 80's there were no protective corridors in place to limit the percentage of fish being taken that were destined for the Situk river. There were a large number of boats that would troll back and forth right outside the mouth of the Situk 7 days a week that were having a significant impact on the Situk river coho stocks at the time, and it was felt by the local gillnet fleet that the percentage of fish being taken in this manner was uneven. Other than years of unusually high abundance, the gillnet fleet is open from Sunday noon through Wednesday noon, and closed the rest of the week to allow escapement up the river. A proposal was ratified and sent in by the Yakutat Advisory Committee and approved by the board of fish to make it so when gillnet fishing is closed to meet weekly escapement goals, trolling would be closed in state waters from approximately 10 miles east of the mouth of the Situk to Pt. Mamby( approximately 30 miles west of the mouth of the Situk.) Since that time the state has determined that having boats trolling in front of the river was a bad idea at any time when the cohos are running, and implemented permanent no trolling corridors that extent approximately 5 miles on either side of the river, and out to the 3 mile line. Over time the overall changes in prices of fish, fuel, etc., have made a lot of changes to both Yakutat's gillnet fleet, and the local and transient troll fleets. There was a time when 100-150 power trollers would fish the area described, increased costs and logistics have cut these numbers down considerably. A gillnet permit for the Yakutat area allows the permit holder to fish many ocean areas and rivers between the areas of Cape Fairweather and Cape Suckling, however most rivers that once were accessible and produced significant catches of fish for the gillnet fleet, have become cost prohibitive to fish any more. This has caused a condensing of the gillnet fleet on the only river in the district you can drive to, the Situk. With so many gillnet permits on the river, per capita catches have decreased, and caused many to look for other ways of producing cohos. There are now approximately 60 to 70 handtroll permits that are being fished out of converted gillnet skiffs and pleasure boats, many of these people are dual permit holders who aren't interested in participating in the already over crowded gillnet fishery on the Situk. There are four main problems with the current law as it is. 1) It's redundant. The state already has a permanent protective corridor in place around the mouth of the Situk, the existing 40 mile corridor that denies access to all of Yakutat bay during times of gillnet closures is excessive. The current law manages the entire Yakutat bay area which is a mixed stock area based solely on stock asessment from one river, the Situk.2) In late August and all of September the weather is such that there are many days when the small local troll fleet, comprised of mostly small boats, is forced to go 3 miles out into the open ocean in order to fish, causing a serious safety concern. 3) The current regulation has cost lost fishing time for the troll fleet during the late summer king salmon opener by prohibiting fishing anywhere inside Yakutat bay after August 7th, unless the Situk river is open to gillnetting, conserving king salmon was never the intent of this ordinance as adopted. 4) Having commercial troll closures in the described area has created an atmosphere of inequality as sportfishing aboard charter boats in this area is exempt from the ordinance and allowed to harvest fish 7 days a week. Basically the current law makes a 3 day per week super exclusive zone for the guided sportsfish fleet.

248 basically just states that the Yakutat advisory committee, which originally implemented the current law, no longer sees it as necessary, needlessly prohibitive to the troll fleet and the community of Yakutat in general, and requests that it be rescinded.

This means totally rescinded, so that trolling for any species in the waters described will be unencumbered by the post August 7th gillnet closures.