Sand Point fishermen get 61 hours on the water — in a fishery the rest of Alaska watches closely

Sand Point-area fishermen get 61 hours on the water this week. Commercial salmon fishing opens at 8am Wednesday and closes at 9pm Friday, under an emergency order from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game — the 21st Sand Point advisory of the season, following a run of short, gear-specific openings.

Purse seine and set gillnet gear may fish across most of the area's districts, while drift gillnet gear is confined to the Unimak District and part of the Southwestern District. A new Board of Fisheries rule that took effect July 18 binds this opening: Area M purse seine permit holders may not keep any king salmon 28 inches or longer between June and the end of October. Those fish must go back unharmed, and any that come aboard injured or dead have to be kept and recorded.

Why a small peninsula fishery draws attention from across Alaska is spelled out in the state's own management plan. The June fishery takes sockeye and chum together, and the chum are "bound for a number of areas, including Japan, Russia, the Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim, Bristol Bay, the Alaska Peninsula, and southcentral Alaska." That interception is the heart of a long-running fight. One proposal to the board — from the Orutsararmiut Native Council in Bethel with the Tanana Chiefs Conference — sought a 10-day June closure so more chum could reach spawning rivers, citing severe declines on the Yukon, Kuskokwim, Unalakleet and Nushagak. The Area M Seiners Association, for its part, has told the board that restrictive or uncertain management can threaten Sand Point's fishing economy. The board has not stated its reasons for what it adopted.