Tag Archives: Karen Gillis
Wondering where the fish have gone
Howard Kantner watches for hits on the net.
KOTZEBUE — It’s raining again, the wind rising and waves sloshing over the grass. I’m yanking at corkline, struggling to stack my salmon nets into old army totes, to protect them from mice and weather for another winter. Commercial fishing in Kotzebue Sound is closed, over before it really started. A complete bust, exponentially worse than any in the past 51 years I’ve participated in this fishery. Catches were dismal in July and many of us assumed — or tried to believe — that the run was late. Rumors swirled around town: about beluga whales, killer whales, warm water, cold water, and villagers up the Noatak and Kobuk rivers catching runs we’d allegedly missed. I didn’t believe it and kept hoping the dearth of fish was tied to changes some of us have noticed over the decades: how the peak of the run has been arriving later and later in August. Our last best season, two years ago, was slow in July, and in August more salmon flooded in than we’d seen before. more, >>CLICK TO READ<< 17:05
Gillis resignation was over board appointment, say’s Walker undermined her credibility as Boards and Commissions director
Gillis said in an interview on Wednesday that she quit her position on May 13 after learning that Walker had decided to appoint Roberta “Bobbi” Quintavell to a vacant seat on the Alaska Board of Fisheries. The appointment rumors surfaced in a May 15 letter from commercial fishing organization United Fishermen of Alaska urging its members to contact the governor’s office to object to Quintavell’s possible appointment based on her close ties to the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, or KRSA, which led the fight that sunk Walker’s previous choice for the board seat, Robert Ruffner. Read the rest here 08:55
Walker’s appointments director resigns after two failed fish board nominations
The official charged with picking appointees for state boards and commissions has left Gov. Bill Walker’s administration, a spokeswoman said Monday.Walker wouldn’t answer questions about the official, Karen Gillis, in a news conference Monday, saying her departure was a personnel matter. Several people involved in fish politics attributed Gillis’s departure to a dispute with the governor over his potential selection of a candidate viewed as aligned more with sportfishing interests than commercial fishing interests. Read the rest here 08:19
Compass: Protect Bristol Bay and Bering Sea fisheries for keeps – Karen Gillis, Executive Director for Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association
adn.com – The question of offshore oil and gas development has hung over Bristol Bay and the southeast Bering Sea for 35 years. Lease sales have been scheduled, fought, sold and repurchased only to be scheduled again once temporary moratoriums expired or were lifted. Enough already. Sustainable fisheries and a healthy ecosystem have been economic engines for Southwest Alaska for more than 125 years and the foundation of traditional ways of life there for close to 10,000 years. These world-renowned fisheries deserve to be safeguarded in perpetuity, and the people who depend on them for their livelihoods deserve some certainty. continued
