Subsistence Rights
RSSSubsistence rights in Alaska cover the legal and political fight over hunting and fishing for food on rural lands and waters. The topic tracks ANILCA's rural priority, state-federal jurisdiction disputes, and rulings from the Federal Subsistence Board, Board of Fisheries and Board of Game.
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Numbers are stories in the last 30 days.
Photo: James Brooks via Wikimedia Commons · Photo source · CC BY 2.0
Area M's June chum catch was near average as fish board moves to reconsider voided limits
Commercial fishermen on the Alaska Peninsula caught a near-average number of chum salmon in June under rules that didn't require any cuts, according to state figures released Monday, as the Alaska Board of Fisheries moves to reconsider stricter limits the state threw out in May.
The fishery, known as Area M, is fished mostly by people from the Aleutians East region, including Sand Point and King Cove, according to the borough. It targets sockeye in June but also catches chum and king salmon headed for the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, which have had no commercial salmon fishing since 2020 and deep cuts to subsistence fishing.
In February, the board voted 4-3 to cut June fishing time by about 30% for seiners and 39% for drift gillnetters, including a 10-day closure between June 10 and June 23. The rules never took effect.
The Aleutians East Borough, the Native Village of Unga and two fleet groups sued in April, saying board members with undisclosed conflicts of interest had cast deciding votes. In May, the acting attorney general voided five of the rules after finding that board member Curt Chamberlain's ethics disclosure was incomplete, and the plaintiffs dropped their suit. The June fishery ran under the board's 2023 plan instead.
On Oct. 29, the board voted 4-3 to take up five requests to restore those rules outside its normal schedule. Board Chair Märit Carlson-Van Dort, Chamberlain, Olivia Irwin and Blair Hickson voted yes. Tom Carpenter, Mike Wood and Paul Cyr voted no.
Carlson-Van Dort said the rules were voided "by a legally questionable and unprecedented action by the Department of Law." Carpenter disagreed. "To me, new information is not something that was thrown out by somebody at the Department of Law," he said.
The requests came from the Orutsararmiut Native Council, Bethel's tribal government, and the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee. Two would bring back the 10-day June closure for seine and drift gillnet gear. The others would tie fishing after June to king salmon caps, limit gillnets to 70 meshes deep and shrink seines.
Under the 2023 plan, seining is cut back if the June chum catch reaches 300,000 by June 18 and closes if it hits 450,000 by June 23. This year's June catch in the South Unimak and Shumagin Islands fishery came to 492,866 chum, just under the 10-year average of 501,337, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's season summary. The department said no closures or cuts happened because the catch didn't reach those triggers by their dates.
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Coming up
Steve Langdon Lecture on Tlingit Offshore Resource Rights
Shuká Hít (clan house), Walter Soboleff Building, downtown Juneau, AK, and livestreamed on SHI's YouTube channel
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Comments close: Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve; Use of Off-Road Vehicles for Subsistence Purposes by Residents of Anaktuvuk Pass
Public notice
Public Comment Deadline: Gates of the Arctic National Park ORV Subsistence Use Proposed Rule
Public notice
About Subsistence Rights
Subsistence rights in Alaska cover the legal and political fight over hunting and fishing for food on rural lands and waters. At their center is the rural priority in federal law under ANILCA, which gives rural residents first claim to fish and game on federal lands and waters when supplies run short, and the split between state and federal management that follows from it.
The decisions come from the Federal Subsistence Board, the Board of Fisheries, the Board of Game and federal agencies such as the National Park Service. Tribes and Native organizations such as the Alaska Federation of Natives and the Tanana Chiefs Conference press for a stronger voice in those decisions.
Recurring questions include declining salmon runs on the Yukon and Kuskokwim, salmon bycatch by trawl fleets, who controls management of the Kuskokwim, spring migratory bird harvests, and how logging and road projects affect the deer and caribou people hunt.
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