Tag Archives: Ninilchik
The end of an era for Alaska fishing may already be here
The historic Long Island fishing town of Amagansett is about 100 miles from New York City — roughly the distance from Ninilchik to Anchorage. Remarkably, a remnant commercial fishery continued on eastern Long Island into the 1980s, despite mounting pressure from urban growth, pollution and rival sport fishermen. This summer, Kenai Peninsula beaches from Ninilchik to Kenai will be empty of setnets and buoys. Family-run commerial fishing businesses, a major economic force in the Cook Inlet region since territorial days, have been shut down and may not be coming back. Exceptional sockeye runs of the 1980s, when setnetters on east-side beaches recorded a few million-dollar seasons, helped set the stage for Cook Inlet’s modern fish wars. Sportfishermen saw too many prize king salmon in fish totes headed to processors. As more permit-holders migrated to the east-side beaches, new efforts were launched to avoid Kenai River kings. >click to read< 15:40
“You’re going to take that little boat across the Inlet?!?”- The little setnet skiff that could
That was the prevailing theme around the Ninilchik Harbor when we showed up with a 21-foot open setnet skiff, headed for Bristol Bay. I have traveled across Cook Inlet from Ninilchik a number of times and never thought much of it, but it had been 20 years since my last crossing.,, Boats are bigger and they have far more power. Most people navigate by GPS rather than compass. The 40-mile crossing from Ninilchik to the mouth of Johnson River is obvious, as long as the fog doesn’t roll in. A compass heading is adequate. Dakota Tennant, Ben Doudna and I motored out of the Ninilchik Harbor at 3:30 on a Wednesday afternoon. The wind was out of the southwest,,, >click to read< 10:47
