PO Box 2898 Palmer, AK 99645
Tel: 907-272-3141 Toll free: 877-999-8566
Fax: 907-272-3142 E-mail: serena@yukonsalmon.org
Greetings from the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association!
Here is a summary of the 3rd 2021 Yukon River Salmon In-Season Management Teleconference held Tuesday, June 15th, 2021. Call lasted 140 minutes. 94 callers participated.
Background: Yukon River salmon management teleconferences are held annually every Tuesday in June, July, and August for managers and fishers throughout the Yukon River drainage to discuss fishing conditions and management strategies in real time as the salmon run is occurring. Funded by the Office of Subsistence Management and the Yukon River Panel.
Media present: KYUK Bethel, KZPA Fort Yukon
Political Representatives participating: None
Communities participating: 23
Scammon Bay
Nunam Iqua
Alakanuk
Emmonak
Mt. Village
St. Mary’s
Pilot Station
Marshall
Russian Mission
Anvik
Nulato
Huslia
Galena
Ruby
Tanana
Rampart
Ft. Yukon
Circle
Eagle
Nenana
Fairbanks
Old Crow
Teslin
COMMUNITY LEVEL REPORTS
Coastal District 1-Lower Yukon
Scammon Bay: Clifford – There are 2 nets in the river, I guess they are trying their luck for chums. I don’t know who’s net one is. I don’t know anyone else fishing.
Nunam Iqua: Joe Afcan – There has only been one person fishing, for chum, that I have seen. Out on the dock. The tides are still pretty low. The only exception was yesterday when there was SE wind. Incoming. Only a couple camps in Black River but I don’t know if they are fishing, I have not been out there.
Stanley Pete – We’ve been having really wet, cool weather this summer so far. There are, to my knowledge, no fish hangin on the racks. I’ve been receiving numerous calls about when they will have an opportunity to get out on the river to harvest some fish for consumption.
Alakanuk: Allen Hansen- We’ve been having wet, chilly weather these last 2-3 weeks now. I’ve been traveling in the village checking fish racks. There have only been a few strips. A couple of fish racks have some strips and head and tails. I guess they got them from fish and game. No one has gone subsistence fishing that I know of. It is getting closer to midpoint, and everyone would like the opportunity to get some fish so they can start hanging them.
John Lamont – Water has been high, foam in water. Seen kings spinning. Test net had over 20 kings. No one has fish hanging. I received one small king on Saturday. No fish hanging, no income fish, no one is fishing, unless they have a 4” net set in some side stream. Illegal. Few more pieces of drift coming down.
Emmonak: James – Like the previous people, I don’t think anyone has caught any fish. I haven’t really been keeping up with fish and game. I can see that there are hardly any fish. Usually by this time I have fish hanging. I’ve been trying to obey the laws. It is strange for us not to be fishing for our needs. I hope something comes out of this. Why talk and not do anything. Everyone here should have fish hanging, but they’ve said we can’t, so we don’t. We have a long winter coming. Why can high sea fishers go out and fish? It is frustrating. Especially for people that want dry fish or strips.
Billy Charles – I bought a motor part for my sister in Kotlik and set some small gear. Set it on the north mouth river near Kotlik for 4 hours. Came back after I delivered the part and checked the net. Nothing. Checked regulations which said more fish were in the middle mouth than south mouth. Good to hear that it is an average sized run compared to other years. Looking forward to using selective gear to do some subsistence to do some fishing. I’ve been fishing here all my life. I see a similarity or similar conditions to years past when there were a lot of kings and no chum at all. I hope that is some indication that there are some kings swimming in the river. And that the chum will come up later.
District 2-Coastal/Lower Yukon
Mt. Village: Nita Stevens- Caught some whitefish. Many fishermen didn’t fish due to restrictions. No drift in the river, water is slowly dropping.
St. Marys: Erik Weingarth – Nobody is fishing. Even with 4” its extremely slow. Might catch a pike or white fish. It’s been wet and cold. I don’t see gulls feeding on smolt coming down the river. It is sad to see empty fish camps. I think like most villages people are sitting at home and wondering what to do, wondering if we are going to have fish for the winter. It is pretty scary.
Bill Alstrom – No fishing on the Yukon. Weather is cold and rainy. Mostly just listening in.
Marshall: Norma Evan- This week has been pretty cold. We had 2 warmer days. Last weeks’ mornings were in the 40’s. Theriver went down a little but not much. Families are repairing things for their smokehouses. All families in town have not started their subsistence fishing. On Sunday there was a visible sheen of pollen on the river. People are asking about when we are going to open this year. There are more small birds than last year. Hardly any mosquitos.
Andy Booth is listening in with me at the Tribal Council
District 3-Coastal/Lower Yukon
Russian Mission: Basil Larsen- Same thing as everyone else. Low water and still dropping. We’ve had two warm days. Otherwise it’s been rainy and windy. There are 2 people with 4” nets. They aren’t getting enough white fish to cut. They stated that we can’t live off white fish. Elders can’t keep up with rules and regulations. There is foam in the water. There have been no dip netters. No fish on any dry racks. Food security is becoming a big concern.
District 4a-Upper Yukon
Anvik: Alberta Walker- I’m the surveyor here for our village. I contacted 6 households and 2 households fished. No fish were caught, maybe 4 sheefish. Some folks have been fishing up the Anvik River with rods and reels. The water level is dropping. The concern of king salmon, fishers will target summer or fall chum. People are concerned about the slow fishing season. No one is cutting fish here in Anvik and they want to know when the next open (fishing) period will be. They feel the periods are not open long enough.
Ken Chase – From Anvik but in Anchorage currently. Only thing to add, Anvik River weir is becoming operational for chum. More info to come.
Nulato: Arnold Demoski – The water is rising, I don’t know if there is drift today, there was yesterday. No one is fishing.
Koyukuk River
Huslia: Lisa Bifelt- I wasn’t able to do any interview and a couple of people fished before the closure. They caught a few white fish and a pike. No one here has 4” gear.
Districts 4b & c-Upper Yukon
Galena: Howard – There have been a lot of changes here. Water has come up 3 feet. The water temperature has come up. 5 Kings were caught before the drift and were all donated to potlatch or elders.
Ruby: Zeke – New here, just joining in for today.
Districts 5a, b, c & d
Tanana: Stan Zuray- Rapids report too. Fair amount of mostly smaller drift coming down river now. It would be considered something that you would not want to put a net out. There is no one fishing (in the main river). There are some smaller whitefish nets in areas without drift – sloughs. People are doing that for dog food and people. One camp open at Rapids. 3 more families today said that they won’t be doing that, they are going to get jobs or something. It is 40 miles out of town. If you don’t have any economic reason, it’s a long way to go for vacation. This summer there will be a greatly reduced population up there. ½ of my regular survey people are not going to camp this summer.
Rampart: Charlie Wright – There was a lot running last week. Water went down and drift went down. We are putting a 6” mesh in today. We’ve been fishing 4” and have been catching 1-3 pike, shefish, everyday. I hear concern from Tanana river residents asking why they are limited, because they don’t have a treaty.
Fort Yukon: Kara’lisa Tremblay – I haven’t started surveying yet. No one is fishing yet and the water is high.
Circle: Larry- Water is a little high but I went down this morning and it is slowly going down and a few small drift going by. Big question is, will we be allowed to fish this year. Circle is at the upper end of the river. We get the tail end of the season and when they get here, we are closed. 22 miles from the border. Closed when they get to Eagle. No chance of getting any kings. What are we going to do about the high season fishing, bycatch, being wasted. I was at a meeting in May when they said they were going to set up a commission, a North Pcific commission, to reduce the bycatch down to zero. Where we have no fishing in the Yukon, all we are doing is making more fish for the high seas fisheries. Now I will stand by and listen to the other reports.
Eagle: Andy Bassich – We had extreme high water since the break up and it has not dropped 2 – 2.5 feet. Drift has reduced. Water is still high but there is very little debris. I have a 30’ long 4” net in one of the sloughs and I have been able to pick up a few pikes for dog food. I know it is hard and an important time for everyone but recognizing that we need to do this to sustain the run for the future. I hope that the run picks up and there are fishing opportunities for everyone.
Districts 6a, b & c
Nenana: Victor Lord – The river has more drift, other than that not much going on. Some comments: Thank you to Charlie for talking about the Tanana restrictions. I think your daughter left at 10:30 this morning. Stan, people not going back to fish camp is a sad thing. People don’t have a lot of money and they spend all they’ve got to get to camp and then they can’t fish. Between the lack of fishing and the cold, I am getting ready to declare a cultural disaster.
Fairbanks: Virgil Umpenhour- Not much fishing going on here. There are people going to Chitna and dipnetting. Area M caught 101,000 chum, 414,000 pinks and some kings. They didn’t report the kings because they didn’t want us to know.
Dorothy Shockley– Just listening in. Looking forward to the fishery report.
Canada
Old Crow: Stanley Julie – Good to hear Alaskans, we made it through another winter. Report from here, we had a really cold winter. Most lakes froze to the bottom. On the river, ice got really really thick – 6’ in some areas. It will be interesting to see what happens for summer. At the moment, a few people are fishing for freshwater fish – whitefish. A few caught this spring and they, surprisingly, were in pretty good shape. They are coming in now over the lakes. Water is average high. There is a lot of interest in fishing this summer for Chinook. There are a lot of comments about the high seas and they are continuous. They could turn into a recommendation for the high seas asking for change about how they fish to protect the stocks of salmon that are coming up the Yukon River. There are great efforts being made and a lot of interest.
Teslin: Carl Sidney The only fishing people have boats and are trolling for trout. The most water I’ve seen in the lake in many years and I think there is still more to come. The weather has been strange. Lots of rain, still lots of snow in the mountains and more water to come. I don’t know how this management handles the high seas fishing, but they need to do something about it.
Yukon River Organization Updates
Brooke Wright – Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission Chairwoman: We have a newly elected fish commission and we meet weekly to discuss the fish. We have several executive council members online today. For this week, we are cautiously optimistic about what appears to be a strong trickle of kings before the first pulse of kings. We recommend maintaining a conservative management approach now. But hoping that our tribes will be able to harvest some kings this summer. We have determined that, from LTK, local knowledge and data. Asking folks to harvest local fish for the time being. Hoping our people will be able to harvest chum salmon. I heard some comments about bycatch and NPFMC. I have been very active, testifying and asking for a reduction of bycatch. Sharing our challenges. Working with a biologist on ways for the council to reduce bycatch. Next approach is to look at SeaShare who distributes fish to the lower 48. Looking at how they could share with Yukon fishers. Then personally, concerned about criminalization of Yukon River fishing. Young Elder was investigated and his boat was boarded. Asking state to please be mindful of tribal members going home. Please do not treat us like criminals.
Carl Sidney – Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee Board Member: I am from Teslin, which is why I am giving the report. Not much activity from the YSSC. We’ve met with communities and have given the projections. Not a lot we can do but cut back, and hopefully one year it will pay off.
Management Reports
(Jeff Estensen with ADFG will give a fall report as the fall season will begin on July 15 /16 in the Y-1 lower river district)
Fred West- ADF&G Yukon River Area Research Biologist
Hotline – also on Facebook. 1-866-479-7387 / 459-7387 (Fairbanks)
Salmon observed to date are early trickle. First pulse has not entered the river yet. Normal run time 19th of June. For chum – Run appears to be later or similar to 2019 and 2020. Not a whole lot of chum yet. Lower Yukon Test Fishery (LYTF) – Chinook catches in the set net have been consistent in the last few days. Waiting to see how this translates at Pilot Sonar. LYTF says Chinook have entered the lower river mostly at the South mouth. Middle mouth test fishery has only caught a couple of Chinook. Summer chum – just haven’t caught a lot yet in LYTF. No pulses of chum yet. Numbers at Pilot are below average.
Sonar at Pilot Station – The sonar is working as planned. No issues with gear or equipment. Water levels are holding. Lower than last year but not super high. Water coming from above holding steady. Some debris. Passage – 22,000 Chinook, the historical average is 29,000 for this date. Summer chum – 5,500 have been counted which is well below historical average for this date 58,000, 27,000 based on late timing.
Andreafsky weir- they are out on site setting it up. Expect to get counts as soon as 6/17.
Anvik – Sonar – same thing.
Ichthyophonus (ICH) research projects – sampling at Pilot Station sonar, using test fish mortality. First year of feasibility study to see if we can detect ICH this low in the river. Testing some methods for sensitivity. If we have harvest, open to subsistence, then we will get samples from Rapids fish camp. Baseline study to see samples and compare to prior years . Monitoring program and feasibility study for this year.
Deena Jallen – ADF&G Yukon River Summer Season Manager –
We are sticking to the preseason management plan that we had. We’ve gotten a lot of feedback on the plan. We knew that we were potentially facing pretty small runs. We are encouraged to see some chinook, but it is early. Hopefully summer chum is coming, but there aren’t enough yet to open up fishing for the summer chum.
We have concerns for King stocks in all of Western Alaska. So we are protecting fish that are going to spawning grounds that are not Canadian bound. Summer CHum has not come into the river yet. But fishers can be using 4” mesh and 60’ and less for non-salmon fishing.
180 king salmon have been distributed to some of the lower river villages. Most of them were caught from the test net near Emmonak.
US Fish and Wildlife Service
Holly Carroll – US Fish & Wildlife Service Yukon River Area Manager
I don’t have much to add, Deena and Fred gave a great report. Thanks to the Fish Commission and the YSSC for sharing their thoughts and recommendations. Want to commend those bodies for taking the time to meet and review and share their recommendations on this call.
Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
Oliver Baker – Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada Biologist
We are still awaiting Chinook. Stock assessment projects are ready to go when fish arrive. The upper Yukon watershed had twice the annual average of snow. We are seeing melting now, a lot of the lakes and rivers are rising and are higher than average and rising quickly. We are sending water your way. That is not the case on the Porcupine. Water levels there are much closer to average.
Jesse Trerice – Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada
There isn’t much difference here this week. As you heard from Carl, they concluded their preseason planning meeting. DFO has received their management recommendations. They are being considered. Anglers are closed and most likely will remain closed for the season. We are waiting for more fish to come into the river so we have more information. People are not expecting to be able to fish this year.
Questions and discussion:
John – I have a question for DF&G, when is the first quarter point and midpoint dates?
Deena – First qtr point, June 19 and midpoint is June 24th.
It is early in the run to decide if this is really the quarter point.
Fred – At this point it is too early to tell, we are basing it on average. 19th, midpoint is pilot 24th of June.
Basil – Question brought up by people surveyed this week. Noone is tasting fish this way yet. Wondering if the test net people at Emmonak and pilot Station could distribute fish up this way. Alaskan stocks of fish are kind of healthy numbers. They would like to get some fishing time, at least once a week, to get a taste. Not to destroy
the run, we just need a taste. WE are starting to have some pretty extreme thoughts to get that.
Deena – Thank you for the information about the test fishery. We are going to try to distribute. If you can give our office a call, then maybe we can discuss transportation. As for getting a taste of fish, the run forecast was looking so low, that we aren’t letting anyone fish on the first run. Hopefully later in the summer we can get people a taste.
Billy Charles – Emmonak – reminds me of that old guy who testified at fish and game. He felt like a seagull waiting for ADFG to distribute fish from the test fishery. In regards to science, biology, research, I am really interested to hear about collaboration to protect those spawning areas. Both sides.
Deena – Thanks for those comments. We are not experts on mining, maybe it would be interesting to get someone from the right agency onto this call. I can’t answer any questions on their behalf, since that is not my area of expertise.
Oliver Barker- Yes, I agree.
Carl- I’ve been, first thing I have to say, I’m pretty sure that people downriver have been misinformed in regards to the mining in Canada. They can barely go to the bathroom next to a stream. They are already being protected. Mining has been going on in Canada for over 100 years. Why hasn’t it damaged the run over the last 20 years? Definitely not the mining industry that did damage to the Chinook run. There is one hydroelectric mine and that’s been around for 70 years. Mining in Canada is not detrimental to the Chinook run. The Yukon River Panel is not sharing all the information with all the Villages along the Yukon River about what is going on. Yukon River Panel members on the Alaska side need to get that information to the communities. The very few miners that we do have complain all the time that they cannot do what they used to do 50 years ago. The guy that made a comment that when he came to whitehorse there were mining trucks all over the place. That’s not true. There is construction.
Victor – A lot of what Carl said is accurate. I wanted to point out the False pass Area M out there… When we would get together, there were a lot of issues being discussed about these areas. The false pass fishermen were getting our fish and they knew they were getting the better fish. They must be hitting it again. The fish don’t change their path. They must be getting them before us. Who do we talk to about that issue? Test fishery people, throw some fish in the freezer for us way up here too.
Stan – Along the same lines as Carl, and what you hear Virgil saying and what Victor just said. It pains me all the time to hear the blame being thrown without any data behind it. At all these different entities. High Seas fishery. I’ve done a lot of research on it. The average amount of fish taken in that fishery that were Yukon bound were miniscule compared to our own commercial fishery inriver. The higher ups love to hear us blaming everyone because their own state fisheries that they run are pumping billions of hatchery salmon into the Bering sea every year. They are getting exemptions for wanton waste so they can strip the eggs and throw them away. They have successfully eliminated monitoring of where those fish go. Trying to get something done to monitor those salmon that are being caught, those numbers of king salmon could be Yukon Bound. The bycatch is high. How many meetings, people on this teleconference, year after year, being at a YRDFA meeting, someone brings up what’s going on out in the Bering Sea Pollock fishery. An hour goes by. Wasting time. It is one of the cleanest fisheries. The number of Yukon Bound fish caught in that fishery (Bering Sea), back in the day when we were taking 20xs as much fish in our fishery. But the state has made it so that people do NOT talk about the hatchery fish or the Area M fishery. Some of us have been trying to bring that forward for 20-30 years now. If we are going to do anything to bring back our king salmon, those are the issues we need to look at. NOT mining or the highly regulated Bering Sea Fishery.
John – I have a question for the Fish commission, who from Y1, 2, 3 or coastal – we have 8,000 people down here, who represents us?
Brooke – We have been working on getting tribes in your area to join on to the FC, which is by resolution. For D1, 2, 3 we have Gabriel Buster from Alakanuk, …. Listed off the others from the rest of the districts. At any time, feel free to reach out to me. Your participation in our meetings has always been welcome.
John- YSSC from Canada being involved, we welcome them. I’ve been a lifelong member of YRDFA, I’ve been commercial fishing, historically, maintaining my lifestyle for longer than the managers have been alive. When we used to fish king from June 1-30. The chums would start coming in mid June, so I don’t worry about them being late until then. Mr. Kameroff and I used to fish in the same area of the Yukon.
Janet – When my daughter had mentioned the law enforcement at the Yukon River Bridge. I had heard it also. Rampart is my home, this is the first time I’m so late going back home. I am very concerned with the law enforcement at the Bridge. I am going home this weekend. I don’t want my grandkids to be scared if they are going to check my boat, or gear, or whatever they are doing there. I hope that they aren’t present anywhere when I am there. Subsistence fishing is open now, so why they were bothering an elder now, I am not sure. I hope they are called off and we get them off the Yukon river, because I don’t want any confrontation when I go there this weekend.
James- Comment in regards to Yukon River fish. Listening to different reports all the way up to Canada. Sounds like there are no fish. Why is there a shortage of salmon coming into our river? Do you think the ADFG should have answers by now? They’ve been managing for close to 50 years. Why are they having these meetings if nothing is being done? It is ridiculous. I’d like to see some kind of report written about why our fish are so low in numbers. They do assessment before the season starts but that is all they do. Let’s get down to the bottom of this and find out what is really happening. I know for sure, when the winds are from the east, we have NO fish coming in. ADFG should be answering these questions.
Martin – I had a summary for Deena, and a question for Fred. I wanted to emphasise that the Yukon is potentially expecting low runs because of the bycatch from the deep sea fisheries. We do not have an agreement with the NPFMC, every year we watch less fish return. I haven’t heard the number that needs to pass by Pilot before we are allowed to fish for subsistence.
I have a comment for Fred, I heard +/- 2,000, and that is a large variance. I would encourage F&G to dial in their numbers closer to 500.
Basil – I think that’s true, if ADFG could manage life and help these fish through their whole life. Instead of just the last 10% of their life and shutting us down. I think years ago, they said this is going to work , it’ll get the numbers back. But in the past few years we have just seen the numbers go down. I think we need to help out these fish throughout their whole life.
Deena – A lot of these questions are way bigger than I can answer. The fish go where they are going to go. We can’t control/manage a lot. We don’t have an answer. But given that there are declines across the Western Alaska, it does point to something that is happening outside of the river and points to the Ocean. We just don’t know what is happening out there, but there are people out there working on that. That just isn’t what we do, and what we work on.
Basil – Add on. How do we get a hold of SeaShare and have them distribute the bycatch throughout the whole Yukon River. Can we need this fish to live? Just to give us a taste would go a long way.
Eric- St. Marys’ My concern is that what I am seeing this year is not much of an outmigration from the Andreafsky river. In all the years I’ve lived here, I’ve never seen this (low) amount of outmigration. We are seeing a low run this year but it makes me think about future years. Last couple of comments were good. People are getting tired of not knowing. They are expecting Fish and Game to provide some answers. People are getting frustrated. Department needs to understand that culture is important to these people. The lady upriver about enforcement, we have been getting checked, our boats, asking us what kind of gear we are using. Etc. Hopefully in the future we will have a discussion about how enforcement enforces subsistence.
Deena – Thank you, Eric. We’ve had some discussion about this with Enforcement. Having the presence on the river helps to keep people fishing, they are seeing 4” or smaller mesh, and are reporting back that people are not trying to break the law. We hope that they aren’t rude and they are doing their job politely.
Joe – Numan Iqua- I heard a lot of explanations of why Fish and Game is regulating the fishery. They have concerns of escapement and timing and how big the salmon runs are . I think the biggest concerns should be for all the departments to get together to help us manage these fisheries so all of us can benefit. Regulated industry for a few people. False pass, intercepting the salmon from the Yukon River. Thank you Victor and Martin for bringing that up. I think YRDFA should in some way vie for position, a voting seat on the NPFMC so we can have some representation for these 8000 people who are depending on these fish as a resource. I started fishing when I was 13 years old. I know exactly what kind of fish are going to Canada, the weight, etc. The same stuff that the managers are trying to study at this moment. I think they would be thankful if we found some way, including the Fish Commission, to get on those boards so we can do something about surviving these annual disasters.
Virgil – I don’t know how many of you know Craig Medred? He is a writer that puts out articles on the internet. He has a recent one that mentions the Yukon and king salmon not showing up. He talks about 5.5 BILLION fish being released into the ocean this last year. What is happening to our salmon is that they aren’t surviving their early stages of their life in the ocean. 40%? Of the fish caught was pink salmon by weight, which is worthless. We need to get YRDFA really engaged again when I was the chairman of the board we were. We need to get the FC working on this as well. We ain’t going to get anything changed by b**** about this ourselves. We need to call the governor’s office. I got them restricted 4 years ago when they cough 44,000 Kings in 18 days. That’s what we have to do. Craig Medrid wrote an article and mentions the Yukon in it. If they have any hope, nothing they do is going to do any good.
Norma- Reflecting Eric’s comments in St. Marys’ – would natural methane emissions from underground affect salmon? From the tundra down here.
Jude Hensley – Are these averages of mortality from the 1960s?
Fred – Are you wanting the average run size from Pilot?
Jude – Yes, is that the totality from 1960 when the state took over? Is this a historical average?
Fred – It is just the pilot sonar, so 1995 To current. It’s just the passage that goes by.
Jude – What is the number? And how many fish are caught at False Pass.
Deena – I don’t have an exact answer. We would need genetic information. I don’t think that information is available.
Jude – How about the high seas or the 200 mile limit? Is that information available?
Fred- JTC report has an appendix with calculations of the adult equivalent of the Canadian Origin stock
Jude- It wouldn’t hurt to present that each week. I do not have access to that information.
Oliver Barker – The question was about recent averages of Canadian origin Chinook that were taken as bycatch. For the years ?-? =892. 2013-2017 – 535. Equivalent of Canadian origin chinook that would have entered the river if not taken as bycatch.
John – I just want to Acknowledge Jude Hensler, I really appreciate all of the work he has done over the years.
Martin – The escapement quota before we are able to do any subsistence fishing.
Deena – We need to look at the numbers at pilot and then we look at the genetic component. We don’t have genetics yet. It is going to be a while before we get that information, that’s why we keep saying the midpoint will be a good point for us to make projections.
Brooke – My efforts at the NPFMC on bycatch is a very long slow painful process. They do not want to hear from a tribal individual to try to restrict these billion dollar industries. I need you managers to support us. Trying to insert language where the Council HAS to address bycatch. I did testify, they put very weak language in about requiring genetic research. Then Deena, often, tribes are asking for you to come out to the villages, and they are told there is no money. But when it comes to criminalizing us, there is money for enforcement.
Holly – I wanted to commend your involvement at the NPFMC, it is absolutely appropriate in your position. Us, as biologists, working for an organization, we have a duty to do a job, and our duty and job is limited to the Yukon. We have people above us that spread out through a chain of command. It is not our role to speak at the council on behalf of the Yukon, that would be inappropriate. I can help folks understand the data, but it is advocacy groups like YRDFA or the FC to advocate. As the Yukon River manager I can submit a letter letting them know the effects of fishing on the yukon and reference the 3 area index, and I will likely do that. Your work, I would like to commend you on that, we are not ignoring your requests, it is just that we can not do what you are asking us to do.
Brooke – Your reports will be helpful for the council to help understand. By support that is what I mean, so I appreciate your time spent as well.
Call ended at 3:20 p.m.
ADF&G HOTLINE: 1-866-479-7387 & Fairbanks 907-459-7387
Fairbanks Office 907-459-7274, Emmonak Office 907-949-1320