A Native org is coaching Yukon harvesters on how to testify effectively

Tanana Chiefs Conference is hosting a virtual workshop July 24 aimed at making Yukon-Tanana subsistence harvesters more effective when they weigh in on fisheries policy — walking participants through the current salmon and wildlife issues and how to make their testimony land in state and federal management decisions.

The training comes out of a specific grievance.

Subsistence fishing is closed across much of the Yukon drainage, the result of years of restrictions tied to collapsing Chinook and chum runs, and TCC and many upriver residents argue their communities have absorbed a disproportionate share of the cutbacks while offshore bycatch goes inadequately curbed. "Your voice matters and it carries weight," TCC's Chelsea Thurman said, urging harvesters to speak up.

How much of the decline bycatch actually explains is disputed. Fisheries scientists point to warming oceans and poor marine survival as major drivers, and the trawl sector and its regulators say bycatch is a small share of total salmon mortality — a disagreement that sits at the center of the testimony TCC is coaching people to give.

The effort is already underway: more than 100 people testified before the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Anchorage in April on salmon bycatch. The July 24 session is the next step.