The Alaska Board of Fisheries made some changes to Southeast Alaska king fishing at its Southeast Alaska finfish meeting over the past several weeks, after discussing at length Alaska residents’ opportunity to participate in the saltwater sport-king fishery and working to provide additional opportunity there, even at the expense of some commercial harvest.

The fisheries board, which generally makes policy and allocative decisions for state fisheries, met Jan. 28 to Feb. 9 in Ketchikan to discuss Southeast Alaska finfish and shellfish. 

The board considers each fishery in each region on a three-year rotation. Among the hundreds of proposed regulation changes they were asked to consider were 31 addressing king salmon management. 

Just a handful of those changes garnered enough support to pass.

The board changed the Southeast Alaska King Salmon Management Plan to increase the sport allocation for king salmon, which reduced the commercial troll allocation and changed how the sport fishery is managed in season.

Board member Marit Carlson-Van Dort of Anchorage proposed the management plan language adopted by the board, and said her intent was for the additional sport allocation to support more king fishing harvest for Alaska residents, a concept several board members said was important in their understanding of public opinion.

The proposal also addressed other aspects of the king salmon management plan, and Carlson-Van Dort said it would give the state Department of Fish and Game flexibility to manage in a way that would slow down the early-season nonresident harvest.

Southeast Alaska regional fisheries management coordinator Patrick Fowler said the goal for saltwater sport king fishery management under the proposal would be to provide uninterrupted resident harvest opportunity, and reduce nonresident harvest opportunity first when conservation measures were required. The amended management plan calls for static resident bag and possession limits depending on abundance. Fowler said Fish and Game would project the likely resident harvest each year, and then set nonresident bag and possession and season limits to accommodate the resident catch.

Van-Dort’s management plan changes were made through an amendment to the original proposal, which was 109. 

Sitka fisher Jacquie Foss was the original author of the proposal, and said her intent was to maintain the historical 80/20 split between sport and troll users, which the board opted to change. 

Her original proposal did seek to provide Fish and Game with management flexibility, as did the version that passed.

The board increased the sport allocation by 3 percent, which reduced the troll allocation by 3 percent. As changed, the management plan now directs 23 percent of the king allocation for the sport fishery, and 77 percent for the commercial troll fishery, leaving room for Fish and Game to adjust the allocations to avoid going over the state’s total allocation. 

The total allocation, which is made under the international Pacific Salmon Treaty, includes an “off the top” amount for the purse seine, drift gillnet and set gillnet fleets, and then the remainder is split between the sport and troll fleets. 

The exact sport/troll split the board agreed to was proposed by board member Mike Wood, a commercial fisherman from Talkeetna, who offered the middle ground between Van-Dort’s proposed 75/25 troll/sport split and Foss’ original intent, which was to maintain the prior 80/20 split.

“This is a management buffer that comes from the troll fleet to make sure that the residents have fish, especially in a time of low abundance,” Wood said.

Wood said it is impossible for management to hit the 20 percent allocation right on, but giving them 23 percent would likely result in the sport sector harvesting about 20 percent of the allocation. If there’s overage at the end of the season, trollers should get the overage, he said.

The board also amended, and then approved, a proposal that requires Alaska residents to fish under the “nonresident” regulations and limits when fishing in the “exclusive economic zone,” which is three to 200 miles offshore from the state — generally considered federal waters. In state waters, Alaska residents are not subject to all the same restrictions as nonresidents. The proposal applies to finfish and shellfish generally, not just king salmon.

Fowler told the board during their discussion that the change was intended to bring the state into compliance with the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which addresses federal fishery management. 

The proposal was made by Marc Gorelnik, who said that the federal fisheries law requires the federal waters regulations to be the same for residents of different states. 

Linda Behnken, from the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, said that while the salmon regulations may have to match, questions remained about whether sablefish had to be managed in the same way, and asked the board to stay open to differential limits in the future.

The Upper Lynn Canal Advisory Committee did not take a position on that proposal though it did weigh in on dozens of others.

The board also reduced some sport fishing opportunity for kings. 

The board amended and passed proposal 125, which will shut down the sport king fishery in District 14A from April 1 to June 14, when the Taku and King Salmon Rivers Chinook Salmon Stock of Concern Action Plan is in place. 

That plan addresses restrictions to protect the king stocks on the Taku and King Salmon rivers when designated a stock of concern. The change was proposed by the Juneau Douglas Advisory Committee, which said it would make the sport fishery match the commercial restrictions more closely.

Other proposals that passed included an adjustment to the August commercial troll fishery and an increase of one fishing day for the Yakutat Bay spring commercial troll fishery.

The board failed most of the proposals before it, including one that would have created a specific subsistence allocation for king salmon, proposal 104. 

That effort was proposed by the Southeast Alaska Subsistence Regional Advisory Council, and had unanimous support from the Upper Lynn Canal advisory committee. 

Several other Southeast Alaska advisory committees also supported the proposal, as did much public testimony, although some fishers and residents also spoke against it.

The salmon allocated for that subsistence use would come off Alaska’s “all gear” king salmon allocation under the International Pacific Salmon Treaty, similar to the purse seine and drift gillnet allocations. 

Under the proposal, the subsistence allocation would roll over to other user groups if not harvested.

Despite the public support for subsistence opportunities generally, board members said the regulatory issues involved made it difficult to pass the proposal. 

Board member Tom Carpenter, of Cordova, said there weren’t enough subsistence king fishing opportunities in Southeast, but that the proposal could not be passed because of the federal treaty and regulations involved. 

Curtis Chamberlain, of Anchorage, echoed that sentiment.

“I, too, would like to see a subsistence designation in Southeast Alaska. I understand the regulatory complexity,” he said.

Ultimately, the board failed the proposal unanimously.