Tag Archives: Sitka Tribe of Alaska
Alaska’s herring row
On a drizzly March afternoon in Sitka, Alaska, K’asheechtlaa “Louise” Brady hurries down a wooden ramp to the dock at Fisherman’s Quay, her gray-streaked hair spilling from the hood of her windbreaker. There, two small skiffs sit low in the water, heavy with 10-foot-long hemlock branches jeweled with yellow-white fish eggs. “Oh, they’re so beautiful!” “This is the taste of what it means to be Tlingit.” Jamie Ross stands on the deck of his seiner, F/V Anduril, next to a pile of dead herring, his shaggy white hair and mustache blowing in the wind. Ross, who’s from Homer, Alaska, has fished Sitka herring for 30 years. He’s one of the 47 permit holders, and one of the few who remember when herring fisheries lined the Alaska coast. Photos, >click to read< 13:29
Fish Board mostly leaves Sitka herring alone following truce between users
After days of deliberation and a contentious set of proposals targeting the Southeast Alaska herring fisheries, the Alaska Board of Fisheries ultimately declined to make any major changes. To make attending the multi-week meeting easier for stakeholders, the board split the proposals into topics scheduled in three sessions, with herring first. There were 14 proposals dealing with herring from a variety of stakeholders, but the most contentious was were from the Sitka Tribe of Alaska and the Southeast Herring Conservation Alliance. The tribe’s proposals asked for a variety of changes to Sitka Sound herring management. The tribe’s main focus was to try to preserve more of the herring stock for subsistence use, but the commercial stakeholders say it would have come at the cost of the industry. >click to read< 15:15
Industry tops subsistence on Board of Fisheries herring votes
In a morning of controversial deliberations at the Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting Tuesday, subsistence users weren’t successful in herring conservation measures to cut commercial fishing harvests. But a favored backup proposal, No. 106, did pass by a 6-1 vote: 4 square miles in Sitka Sound were added to a 10-square mile protected area reserved for subsistence harvest and barred from commercial fishing. >click here to read< 15:18
Alaska Board of Fish gets earful on herring, salmon proposals
More than 200 people turned out in Sitka to testify about herring and salmon fisheries in front of the Alaska Board of Fisheries on Tuesday. And about two-thirds of those who spoke were concerned over the commercial management of the Sitka sac roe herring fishery. The herring industry wants to maintain the status quo. Fishermen and processors expressed support for the methods used by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to predict how many herring they can safely harvest. >click here to read< 09:38
Sitka tribe asks state regulators to shut down commercial herring fishery
Sitka Tribe of Alaska is asking state fishing regulators to end the current commercial harvest of herring near the Southeast community, saying too many of the tiny fish are being caught and it’s hurting the tribe’s traditional reliance on herring eggs. Tribal chairman Mike Baines wrote a letter to Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotton today asking that he “cease any additional attempt” by the commercial fishing division to allow more herring to be caught in the Sitka sac roe herring fishery. A Fish and Game update on the Sitka Sound herring fishery on Saturday said approximately 10,050 tons had been harvested since this season started on March 17. That leaves about 4,690 tons left to be harvested. Read the rest here 19:06
Sitka Tribal Government Disappointed With ADF&G
(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska – Sitka Tribe of Alaska said they are disappointed in the recent decision by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to allow a cooperative Sitka Sound Roe fishery to take place and not close the fishery all together. continued
