Hundreds of commercial fishermen on Cook Inlet’s east side will no longer be allowed to use their traditional fishing gear when local king salmon runs are poor. The state Board of Fisheries on Friday approved changes to the Kenai River Late-run King Salmon Stock of Concern Plan, under which the fishery currently operates. The move came over the objections of setnetters and some board members.
The changes swap out setnets for beach seines in the state’s special low-abundance management plan for the Kenai River’s late-run king salmon fishery. The philosophy behind the change is that seine nets could allow the fishermen to release king salmon bycatch while they fish for their target species.
The changes do not impact the fishery’s basic management plan. The new rules only apply to the special low abundance management plan.
“This is not a wholesale change of the fishery,” said Board Chair Märit Carlson Van Dort speaking at the Board of Fisheries special virtual meeting. “In the underlying management plan, gill nets are still allowed.”
Carlson Van Dort said she supports the changes, but knows the proposal isn’t perfect. She says she’s been frustrated by the board’s inability to give more fishing opportunities to the setnet fleet during abundant sockeye salmon runs.
“My motivation is to try and figure out a path forward to provide opportunity on abundant sockeye in times of low kings and this is a way to do it,” she said. “It's a baby step way to do that.”
It’s been years since Cook Inlet’s commercial east side setnetters have fished a normal season. Alaska’s Board of Fisheries has put restrictions on the fishery with the goal of letting dwindling king salmon runs in the Kenai and Kasilof rivers rebuild.
Board member Curtis Chamberlain helped bring the proposal forward. He says the board’s actions on the Kenai River have statewide implications.
“This river is a poster child for the salmon crashes that a lot of the rivers are seeing in there, and that's something we very much have to pay attention to,” he said.
That prompted east side fishermen to experiment with beach seines. Setnets catch fish by the gills. By the time the fish are pulled onto the beach, they’re usually dead. But seines billow with the tide and scoop fish onto shore, still alive. Setnetters hypothesized seines could enable them to harvest sockeye and release any kings back into Cook Inlet.
And data gathered over the last two years suggest that mission was successful: of almost 30,000 fish caught by beach seiners last year, all 16 king salmon caught were released back into the inlet. Of those, only one was a large king – longer than 34 inches.
Last year, the state gave setnetters a brief window to fish after the run hit the state’s threshold. Board member Olivia Henaayee Irwin says that’s evidence the state’s management plan is working.
“What I don't want to see is us looking at this 2025 number that technically met the recovery goal, and immediately start to go back on all the progress that's been made,” she said.
The board made a few tweaks to the proposal before passing it.
Members removed references to lease site requirements after the board’s lawyer said that authority belongs to a different state department.
The board signed off on up to 10 more experimental, cost-neutral beach seine permits for the summer, which are being reviewed by the department. The cost-neutral designation means fishermen can sell sockeye they harvest under the permit to recoup the costs of experimenting with beach seines. They cannot sell harvested fish to turn a profit on the operation.
And the board removed the word “preseason” from the king count that must be met before beach seines can be used. As introduced, the proposal required a preseason forecast of 14,250 large king salmon. Now, that gear may be allowed whenever the run hits that level, regardless of the time of season.
Not all board members agreed the changes are the best solution.
Member Mike Wood says it’s not as simple as swapping out one gear type for another. A requirement that beach seiners fish from shore, for example, will disenfranchise hundreds of permit holders who don’t have shore leases, he said.
“Allocatively, you're just basically giving beach seines to about 35 or 45 fishermen, and leaving 300 and some out there not even able to fish with 1/8 of the amount of gear that they used to have,” he said.
Wood was recused from voting because he setnets commercially in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough
Other board members said that, while requiring fishing from shore may exclude some existing setnetters from seining, they aren’t technically required to have a lease site to fish from the shore in Alaska.
Multiple members also raised concerns about the process – the changes were made outside of when the board would normally consider Cook Inlet issues. The board meets in three-year cycles, and isn’t scheduled to take up Cook Inlet issues until next year. Wood said the changes should wait until then.
“Why are we in such a hurry to get this wrong?” Wood said. “Like this really, to me, seems like something that needs the deliberation necessary next fall to come up with some of these answers.”
The board did not accept public testimony during its meeting. But it received hundreds of pages of public comments on the three proposals it considered.
Nearly all addressing the beach seine proposal were against the changes. Groups opposed included the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association, the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, the United Fishermen of Alaska, the North Pacific Fisheries Association, the Kenaitze Indian Tribe and the Alaska Salmon Alliance, among others. A letter of support came from the Kenai River Sportfishing Association.
The board voted 4-2 in favor of the changes, which go into effect for the upcoming summer fishing season.
