Seven times is the charm for building some momentum on a measure that aims to give personal use fisheries a priority over commercial and sport users. As it stands now, the three fisheries all are on equal footing in the eyes and actions of state managers.
The priority shift has been introduced during each of the last seven legislative sessions by now-Sen. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, but has never made it past a first hearing — until now.
“It only took Sen. Stoltze, the bill sponsor, chairing the hearing committee himself,” quipped Dave Theriault in his Juneau Resources Weekly.
The measure, Senate Bill 42, is dubbed “The Alaskans-First Fishing Act” and it concerns salmon, without saying so directly. It “directs the Board of Fisheries to place restrictions on sport and commercial fisheries before putting restrictions on personal use fisheries when the harvest of a stock or species is limited to achieve an escapement goal.”
The issue is driven primarily by the salmon demands of users at the Kenai and Kasilof Rivers, and the popular Chitina dipnet fishery at Copper River.
“I’m more sympathetic to those in streams who see commercial fishermen taking tonnage where we’re restricted to poundage,” said Sen. John Coghill, R-North Pole.
The PU priority got a friendly reception by lawmakers in a first Senate hearing two weeks ago. Stoltze said that the Board of Fisheries would still hold the authority to set fish allocations; he called a PU preference “an additional tool for managers.”
Via adn.com
image credit youtube
