It’s been more than eight months since an organization from Washington petitioned the federal government to put Gulf of Alaska’s king salmon on the endangered species list. But the issue was still top of mind at last week’s annual Kenai River sportfishing summit in Soldotna.
Every year, sport fishing bigwigs descend on Soldotna to talk policy as part of the Kenai Classic Roundtable. The event is hosted by the Kenai River Sportfishing Association and brings together politicians, industry experts and others to unpack issues facing some of the country’s most lucrative fishing grounds.
Dani Evenson is a policy advisor with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. She was a featured speaker this year on a panel to share the state’s thoughts on a petition to give Gulf of Alaska chinook salmon protections under the Endangered Species Act, or ESA.
“The state firmly believes that ESA listing of chinook is unnecessary, unwarranted, and are going to throw everything we have at this to fight to keep our hard fought rights to manage our natural resources,” she said. “Make no mistake here, we are under attack, and your Fish and Game stands ready to fight alongside you.”
The Washington-based environmental organization submitted the petition in January. The 67-page document points to declining chinook productivity and abundance around the state and ineffective state action as being the impetus for federal intervention.
The petition cleared its first administrative hurdle in June, when the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ruled the petition warrants further scientific review. That decision kicked off a public comment period, which is currently underway.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game swiftly condemned the petition after it was submitted, as have members of Alaska’s Congressional delegation. During the roundtable,Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan called the petition meritless and described the group that brought it forward as “radical, far-left activist.”
“The ESA, as you know, is a blunt, one-size-fits-all instrument and I think would inflict very significant harm on Alaskans, our economy, sport fishing, if they move forward with this,” he said.
Evenson said the petition inaccurately suggests state management of Alaska’s king salmon populations is insufficient.
“Many fisheries have been reduced or closed altogether in response to declines in chinook abundance, and in some cases, non-target fisheries have been restricted — look at Sockeye fisheries near here — to protect wild chinook,” Evenson said. “And anyone who fishes the Kenai is painfully aware of this.”
Multiple fisheries on the central peninsula are impacted when king salmon runs are low. This season, Cook Inlet’s historic east side commercial setnet fishery was closed outright for the second year in a row, prompting some fishers to seek alternative options to stay in business. The Kenai River sport king salmon fishery was also closed, as was the Kasilof River fishery, which briefly allowed people to fish for hatchery king salmon.
Evenson said the state acknowledges poor chinook runs statewide, but disagrees that the ESA is the right mechanism for relief. She cast doubt on the accuracy and relevancy of the petition, which she called a “outside attack” on the Alaskan way of life.
“A listing under the ESA is just going to add layers of regulation and bureaucracy that won't help the situation and will just ensure that we Alaskans will not be able to reap the benefits from painful fishery restrictions now when productivity rebounds,” she said.
Emma Helverson is the executive director of Wild Fish Conservancy, the nonprofit organization that brought the petition forward. She says her group’s long been interested in declining chinook runs along the west coast, and that Alaska’s salmon stood out as being in worse condition compared to the Lower 48 when it comes to abundance, distribution, diversity and size.
“Out of our concern for chinook recovery, you know, we work anywhere … salmon go, regardless of the borders that humans observe,” she said. “And so we really felt that this is another area where, you know, we needed to take action, or we might lose these chinook entirely.”
Helverson thinks there’s more in-state support for the petition than it may seem, because of how politically charged the topic is. She says ESA petitions can come from anyone, and their petition repackages the government’s own existing fisheries data to highlight trends.
“We were able to bring forward data from Alaska Fish and Wildlife, data from NOAA Fisheries, and just say, ‘Hey, you know, all together, when we're looking at this data, we're seeing a big problem,’ asking them to look at it through this lens of the Endangered Species Act,” she said.
By submitting king salmon populations to the federal ESA review process, Helverson says they hope to concentrate more resources toward better understanding the factors negatively impacting Alaska king salmon. She pushed back on concerns that the process will close king salmon fishing outright in Alaska and said they’ve heard a variety of opinions since submitting the petition.
“The goal is to ensure that these populations that are in trouble get the resources and the help that they deserve,” she said.
NOAA’s June ruling is just the latest step in the petition process. Helverson estimates it’ll take years to develop recovery plans if Alaska king salmon end up on the Endangered Species List. In the meantime, they’ve got their eyes on the current year-long review period, which ends next January. NOAA is accepting public comments on their evaluation to determine whether to list Gulf of Alaska king salmon until September 6.
