In an attempt to save king salmon, a local advisory committee considered asking Klukwan subsistence fishermen to pull their nets out of the Chilkat River during the peak of the Chinook run. Instead of official action, however, the request will come from individual members.

Upper Lynn Canal Fish and Game Advisory Committee member Ryan Cook said at an April 26 meeting that king salmon have a “wide open corridor” from the ocean up the Chilkat River until they hit subsistence nets near Klukwan. Starting at about 19 Mile, Cook said the river becomes a bottleneck until the salmon move past the Wells Bridge toward their spawning ground.

“We’re all worried about king salmon,” Cook said. “We need numbers in the river.”

The Department of Fish and Game expects a record low return for 2018 – 1,030 kings compared to the 2,830-average since 2007.

Cook and Stuart DeWitt, both commercial gillnetters, suggested Klukwan fishermen take their nets out of the river for the peak two weeks of the king salmon run, July 7-21.

Committee chair Tim McDonough said Tuesday the suggestion would not be a committee action but will be led by Cook as an individual.

Area management biologist Wyatt Rhea-Fournier said commercial fishing time and area has also been restricted, in addition to new mesh restrictions for first three weeks of the season and night closures. “That combination we’ve never seen before,” he said.

Cook and DeWitt offered for the Haines fleet to donate sockeye to Klukwan to make up for the lost time.

“We’re trying to preserve the right to fish, not take it away,” DeWitt said. “We should come together and make a conscious decision to do the right thing.”

Klukwan resident Tony Strong said he had a “visceral reaction” against the offer.

“I’m not appreciative of charity. I want to get my own,” Strong said. “To shut down my ability to get fish, it’s not just a cultural thing. Our life depends on it.”

Klukwan resident Justina Hotch said it was a struggle to get enough fish last year with the Chilkat River open from 19 Mile to Wells Bridge only four days a week. She said on some days when they were allowed to fish, the river was too high to cast their nets.

This summer’s restrictions on the river will be similar to last season. The entire Chilkat River will be open June 1 through June 14. The river will close from June 15 to July 31, except for the portion of the river between 19 Mile Haines Highway and the Wells Bridge. That section will be open for only four days a week. The Chilkat Inlet will close to subsistence fishing until July 22. “Up until last year, the restriction to four days a week had never been implemented,” Rhea-Fournier said.

The Chilkoot Indian Association’s Culture Camp coincides with the suggested closure dates. Hotch said she was concerned the ban would “impact children’s ability to connect with the core of who they are.”

Although Hotch said a two-week period doesn’t seem unreasonable, she encouraged the committee and Fish and Game to take a look at the entire closure.

Committee chair Tim McDonough said, “Sometimes you have to do things that aren’t so comfortable.”

Committee member Kip Kermoian said he liked the proposal in terms of conservation.

“What is the value of your tradition opposed to the value of spawning Chinook mortality?” Kermoian asked.

Kimberley Strong, of the Chilkat Indian Village Tribal Council said that question “is out of line,” and suggested Fish and Game take a look at the seining industry.

“Why are we getting the pressure and not the seiners?” she said. “Fish and Game hasn’t done all they can to stop the bycatch of king salmon by the seining industry. Management of the fisheries needs to start further south.”

Rhea-Fournier said king salmon are the species of fish most often not reported accurately. Fish and Game doesn’t have the funding to put observers on boats to monitor seiners’ activity.

Strong said the council has not had an opportunity to discuss the proposal, but she is personally against it “out of principle and a preference for my community that relies on the river…It’s one more thing being pushed on the Native community,” Kimberly Strong said.

She said king salmon has been a stock of concern for Klukwan long before Fish and Game identified it as in danger.

Rhea-Fournier called the king salmon decline a “regionwide epidemic,” but said the ban would not be enforced by Fish and Game.

Alaska state law directs the Board of Fisheries to provide a reasonable opportunity for subsistence uses first. “Subsistence fishing is protected under the state’s constitution,” Rhea-Fournier said. Haines’ commercial, sport and personal use fisheries would close first if Fish and Game were to shut down subsistence fishing, Rhea-Fournier said.

Cook said Tuesday he plans to meet with Strong and Dan Hotch, who represents Klukwan on the advisory committee, before moving forward, and he invites other Klukwan community members to attend.

“I think it would be a really cool thing to move forward,” Cook said. “Everybody has to work together to try to get as many fish up the river. I think we can do it.”