Six Kasilof dipnetters cited this month, all for failing to record catch

At least six people have been cited on Kasilof-area personal use fisheries this month, and none of it was for taking too many fish. The charge, over and over, is failing to write down the ones they caught.

The latest went to a 42-year-old Kasilof man, cited in Kenai on July 28 and facing $120 bail. Before him, a 65-year-old at Kasilof North Beach on July 21, and four Anchorage dipnetters on July 11, all for the same thing, all at $120. The Upper Cook Inlet permit requires recording each salmon and clipping both tail fins before the fish leaves your sight, and it's an easy rule to forget with a net in your hands and reds coming in.

The paperwork isn't busywork. Personal use dipnetting is one of Alaska's most popular fisheries, thousands of residents filling freezers each summer, and the state counts that harvest one logged fish at a time. Managers say accurate harvest and escapement numbers are what keep the Kasilof runs healthy. The recording rule is strict on purpose: what the state needs is the count, whether or not anyone meant to skip it.

Each citation is an accusation, and those charged are presumed innocent.