Kenai/Soldotna advisers start weighing Upper Cook Inlet fish proposals Nov. 18

The Kenai/Soldotna Fish and Game Advisory Committee will start making its recommendations on proposed Upper Cook Inlet finfish rules at a public meeting Wednesday, Nov. 18, and continue the review Wednesday, Nov. 25.

Both meetings start at 6 pm at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center in Soldotna.

The committee is made up of community members from all user groups who discuss fish and game issues and recommend changes to regulations. Members also represent the community before the Alaska Board of Fisheries, which makes the decisions. The board's Upper Cook Inlet meeting is scheduled for Feb. 25 through March 8, 2027.

The proposals cover mandatory harvest reporting, gear rules, escapement goals and management of coho and king salmon. Many deal with Kenai River late-run kings, a stock of concern, and suggest changes such as beach seines, tangle nets or dip nets, or different fishing periods.

Others would change the Northern District King Salmon Management Plan, including one that would set a harvest cap of 4,500 kings and others that would permanently close certain waters to commercial fishing. One would bar guides from the Upper Cook Inlet personal-use salmon fishery. Others deal with the Kasilof River and the commercial smelt fishery, where proposals pull in opposite directions on the harvest level.

The review comes after the board added eight Upper Cook Inlet king stocks and Little Susitna coho to its concern list in late October, bringing the inlet's troubled king stocks to 13.