Upper Cook Inlet’s commercial driftnet fishing fleet has a new rulebook for the salmon fishing season that starts in July. That’s after the Alaska Board of Fisheries, which oversees state-managed waters, significantly altered the fleet’s season parameters during its meeting in Anchorage last week. Some Kenai Peninsula fishermen are unhappy with the changes.
The changes were spurred by a proposal from Andy Couch, a fishing guide in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, although the version approved by the board was ultimately a dramatic rewrite of the submitted language. Couch told commissioners the Upper Cook Inlet’s drift fleet is preventing coho salmon from getting to the Deshka and Little Susitna Rivers. That’s where Couch guides.
“Northern Cook Inlet coho salmon escapements have declined with increased use of the central district drift gill net fleet to harvest large returns of Kenai and Kasilof river sockeye during the past three years,” he said.
The state’s management plan for Cook Inlet’s central district drift gillnet fishery is outlined in Alaska Administrative Code. Cook Inlet is carved into chunks of fishing grounds that may be opened or closed by the Department of Fish and Game.
Board members weren’t scheduled to hear proposals impacting Cook Inlet fisheries during its 2026 meeting. That’s because the board meets on three-year cycles, and Cook Inlet issues aren’t scheduled to be taken up until 2027. But the board agreed to take up the proposal as a supplemental issue.
The new rules let the fleet fish eight more hours per week, but restrict the fleet’s fishing grounds.
The existing management plan outlines different rules for different times during the season, depending on the strength of the sockeye salmon run at that time. For example, if runs and timing allows, the fleet can fish in state waters south of Kalgin Island, called Drift Gillnet Area 1 and west of Anchor Point, called the Anchor Point Section.
But the new plan is simpler. It describes one set of rules for the fleet, mostly regardless of the time of season. It sets drifters’ regular fishing hours from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays in the Upper Subdistrict’s expanded Kenai and Kasilof sections.
The new plan also lets the Department of Fish and Game commissioner give the fleet more fishing time if sockeye runs are strong. It totally bans fishing days longer than 16 hours and limits fishing in early August to the west side of Cook Inlet – Drift Gillnet Areas 3 and 4.
The changes come less than two years after the federal government began managing commercial salmon fishing in part of Cook Inlet. Couch claims that shift has resulted in weaker coho salmon runs in his region.
Roland Maw is on the board of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, which has battled the federal government in court over its management of the area. He also opposes the state’s new restrictions on the fleet, which he told the board will limit harvest opportunities for fishermen.
Among other things, Maw says the new federal rules forbid vessels from fishing in state and federal waters on the same day. That makes it tough for fishermen to change their plans depending on what’s allowed on a given day.
“All those folks who decide to meet the federal regs and fish in the federal waters on a particular day – we cannot put our net in the water,” he said. “We will get a federal ticket, even though we’re fishing legally under state regs in state waters. And that’s a problem, and it needs to be worked out.”
Board of Fisheries member Tom Carpenter says that’s ultimately a choice fishermen make for themselves.
“It’s really not the prerogative of this board to deal with what happens in the EEZ,” he said. “That’s a very different set of circumstances in another regulatory body, but it also kind of confirms, by what you said, that fishermen do have the choice to fish where they want.”
Board members voted 4-2 in favor of the new plan as amended. Board member Mike Wood recused himself. Members did not take public comment on the rewritten language. Kenai Peninsula commercial fishermen say it's the latest instance of state managers voting against their interests.
The summer is also shaping up to be restrictive for sport fisheries in the region. The Department of Fish and Game’s Sport Fish Division has already closed king salmon fishing outright on the Kenai River and sharply restricted it on the Kasilof River. But sockeye runs have hit record highs in recent years, roughly doubling the value of local commercial salmon fisheries last summer.
Meanwhile, on social media Tuesday, the United Cook Inlet Drift Association said it will be challenging the state’s new management plan in court “very soon.”
Up-to-date fishing regulations can be found on the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s website.
