Kuskokwim Tribes Raised Voices for Chum Salmon Bycatch Protections at Latest North Pacific Fishery Management Council Meeting
February 13, 2025
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC, or Council) held a special chum salmon bycatch meeting in Anchorage and online from February 3–11, 2025. The focus of this meeting was primarily to review the preliminary draft Environmental Impact Statement (PDEIS or EIS) for new approaches to chum salmon bycatch management in the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery, with a prioritization on reducing bycatch of Western Alaska chum salmon.
The Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (KRITFC), as one of the Tribal cooperating agencies in this process, contributed knowledge about chum salmon – including Kuskokwim Indigenous communities’ relationships with chum salmon and factors cumulatively contributing to chum salmon declines – to this EIS process. Read more in Appendix 7 to the PDEIS here.
Over 180 people testified at the Council meeting, and testimony lasted three days. Heartfelt, powerful testimony came from Tribal Salmon People throughout the Kuskokwim and other Western and Interior Alaska rivers about the cumulative, harmful impacts salmon declines and salmon bycatch are having on traditional ways of life and communal wellness––and about what can be done to correct these.
“Built into the foundation of that very same way of life is our responsibility to care for our salmon, and to make sure that all of our voices are being heard,” shared Jonathan Samuelson, KRITFC Chair, during his testimony. He later said the stewardship of fish goes beyond salmon. Our bears eat our fish, and if our bears aren’t eating them, they’re eating something else. If the fish aren’t in those spawning grounds, then those trees are hungry for fish because they share DNA with our salmon. And if our trees aren’t growing, then we can’t cut them down to smoke [fish].”
Chair Samuelson concluded, “Data shows that when we as Indigenous People are forced to deviate from our way of life, our wellness is jeopardized. When we are not well, when we are not able to maintain our spiritual relationship with our non-human relatives, when we are not able to provide for our families, the cumulative effects show up. In the worst cases, this shows up as suicide.”
Tribal representatives from Western and Interior Alaska, including the Kuskokwim voiced support for creating a migratory corridor for Western Alaska chum salmon. In concept, this would set bycatch caps in areas north of the Alaska Peninsula, where the pollock trawlers encounter the most Western and Interior Alaska chum salmon. Tribal testifiers also stood in support of a low, Bering Sea-wide cap on chum salmon, including a cap of 100,000 fish, which is the lowest cap option on the table.
At this meeting, the Council revised the alternatives for renewing chum salmon bycatch management and recommended by publication of the draft EIS, with analysis of new alternatives, by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Information about the timing of the publication of the draft EIS and next public comment period is pending, but likely will be in the early fall. Final action for this issue is tentatively scheduled for December 2025.
For more information, please reach out to:
Terese Vicente, KRITFC, Policy and Programs Director: 907-545-5022 or terese@kritfc.org
Kevin Whitworth, KRITFC, Executive Director: 907-524-3088 or kevinwhitworth@kritfc.org
For a comprehensive summary of the February 2025 NPFMC Meeting, click here.