Even though sockeye salmon have been abundant on Cook Inlet’s east side in recent years, the state has severely limited the setnet fishery there. The restrictions are intended to reduce king salmon mortality amid dwindling runs. Last year, a Kenai fishing couple tired of being sidelined launched an experimental fishery that yielded 15,000 sockeye and zero king salmon deaths. State fishery authorities will soon consider making the experimental gear a permanent option.
Brian and Lisa Gabriel want to make something clear: there’s a difference between beach seines and set beach seines.
“Everything is mechanically operated from the beach with no boat,” Brian said. “It's utilizing a pulley line system that pulls the net out and pulls it back in, and using the tide and current to billow the seine.”
Ordinarily, the Gabriels wouldn’t be talking about beach seines. They’re just two of more than 400 commercial setnet permit holders on Cook Inlet’s east side, where they’ve fished sockeye for decades. But last summer, they tried something new.
With a special permit from the head of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in hand, they embarked on a mission:
“To try to harvest sockeye and not kill king salmon,” Brian said.
The results of their experiment were positive. The Gabriels caught more than 15,000 salmon over the course of their fishery. Of those, 13 were king salmon, and all were released alive back into Cook Inlet – not one king salmon was killed.
The last time setnetters were able to fish for at least part of their regular season, in 2022, setnetters caught 341 kings, including 32 large kings, and more than 100,000 sockeye.
Now, they’re taking their results to Alaska’s Board of Fisheries. In March, the board will consider a new regulation for Cook Inlet’s east side setnet fishery, brought by the Gabriels. If approved, setnetters could fish with beach seines when their fishery is closed due to poor king runs in the Kenai River.
“The best case is that we come out with a regulation in the stock of concern that allows us to use the alternative gear,” Lisa Gabriel said. “The worst case would be that we don't come out with anything.”
The state ties restrictions on the fishery to king salmon runs in the Kenai River. When those runs are poor, the setnet fishery is restricted. In recent years, those restrictions have meant limited fishing hours and, in some instances, a complete closure. The Gabriels hope beach seining can provide relief when king runs are especially bad.
“Is it as effective as gillnets, you know, on a fully prosecuted gillnet fishery?” Brian Gabriel said. “No. Is it better than just dipnets? Yes. We feel that it's put us more towards our, what you call our historical allocation of sockeye, which is what we're ultimately trying to do.”
The mechanics of set beach seining aren’t fully polished. For example, the Gabriels say they’d like to develop a way of dumping fish directly from their net into totes, rather than picking them out of the sand. But they think beach seines could provide relief to permit holders if the fishery is restricted again this year.
“We're proud that this could be a change, you know, in our fishery for, you know, the next 10 years, or until these kings recover, you know, kind of to keep it alive, to keep the fishermen involved,” Lisa Gabriel said. “It’s a great family. This way of fishing is pretty amazing.”
The Gabriels hope to formally present the results of the summer experiment to board members.
The Alaska Board of Fisheries will convene in Anchorage Mar. 11-16. The board is accepting public comments on proposals through Feb. 25.
