"Every Fish Counts": Salmon Bycatch Committee Recap

Photo courtesy Lisa Hupp/USFWS.

The newly formed Salmon Bycatch Committee held its first meeting yesterday in advance of the upcoming December 2022 North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting. This Committee is bringing together Council members, commercial fishing industry representatives, and Tribal leaders – including KRITFC Chair Mike Williams Sr. and Executive Director Kevin Whitworth – to discuss salmon bycatch and bring recommendations to address salmon bycatch to the Council.

While we are heartened to see the Council bring together this diverse Committee, we left its first meeting without any concrete steps toward reducing salmon bycatch, particularly of chum salmon. Our Tribal communities throughout the Kuskokwim watershed – along with Tribal folks across the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim region – are suffering immensely because of the ongoing multi-species salmon collapses. Without abundant salmon over the past few years, we haven't been able to fish without restrictions, feed our families, pass on our culture and traditions, or practice our way of life. We are in crisis mode – yet time and time again, including at this Committee meeting, we feel as though this crisis and our efforts to alleviate it are being ignored. 

We know that bycatch isn't the only cause of our salmon declines, but it is a significant factor over which our management systems have control. And, as we know from our collaborative management on the Kuskokwim, in the face of a lot of uncertain, uncontrollable factors, the most ecologically sound approach is to enact precautionary management without delaying for more data.  The Council has the ability to take such action to reduce chum salmon bycatch by setting hard caps (also know as Prohibited Species Catch limits) and limiting commercial pollock fishing time. We are urging them to do this because every fish counts at this point in the Western Alaska salmon crisis; every salmon that can be protected and returned to our AYK rivers to spawn matters to us and our families. 

Our Tribal citizens are ready to act on salmon bycatch – but it is clear to us that the Council is not ready and it will not act, especially not without support from the pollock industry. During the Committee meeting, we stated that our intent is not to shut down commercial pollock fishing, but only to reduce salmon bycatch so we can restore and sustainably manage our salmon populations. We are feeling immense urgency to do this because of the crisis we are facing on our rivers – where our people are the only ones bearing the burden of salmon conservation by being shut out of our ways of life. It is inequitable and unjust that our Tribal fishing families sit on the river banks, unable to fish, while pollock trawl vessels continue to catch and discard thousands of chum and Chinook salmon each year with almost no restrictions.

We need your help urging the Council to act now to reduce salmon bycatch by initiating an analysis of alternatives to set a chum salmon hard cap. The Council needs to hear from you that we have the data we need to be precautionary and take immediate action to protect our Western Alaska salmon and fishing traditions. For more information about how to submit written comments, testify, and engage with the Council this December, visit our website here. 

Quyana, Tsen'ahn, Thank you to everyone for sharing your voice to protect our salmon and way of life.