Alaska Natives, advocates applaud state’s new restrictions aimed at helping chum salmon recover

The Alaska Board of Fisheries is cutting chum salmon fishing in Southwest Alaska by 30 percent.

Alaska Native communities, who have faced increasing food insecurity due to a lack of salmon in the Yukon River for years, say the move is a good first step.

In the interior of Alaska, along the Yukon River, lives Beaver, a remote village that has depended on chum salmon for years as a main food source. The nearest grocery store is in Fairbanks, 170 km south by plane, and food comes at a high cost.

Rhonda Pitka is the leader of the beaver village. He said 2019 was the last good year of fishing before the “Yukon River salmon disaster.”

“Salmon kept us alive for a long time. It was our lifeline,” he said. “We live in these incredibly cold communities in the winter. So when we were fishing in the summer we would save enough to last us through the winter and then we would have enough to share with our relatives in our communities.”

Pitka said that in addition to being a staple food source, salmon are also culturally important. Potlatches are used at funerals, as well as to barter and trade for food in other communities. The loss of access to salmon has been devastating, Pitka said.

“Sometimes the destruction of the culture around salmon causes such a loss of hope that people are suicidal,” he said. “It has been damaging and very damaging to our communities.”

Pitka expects tougher conservation efforts, but thinks the Alaska Board of Fisheries is divided on the issue. The board’s decision to reduce fishing was a divided vote of 4–3.

Dennis Zimmerman, chair of the Yukon Salmon Subcommittee, said he was pleased with the announcement.

Although Chinook salmon aren’t as well-known, he said chum are just as important. Along with being important to the diet of Alaska First Nations, the fish “also have a huge role in environmental and general ecosystem benefits like bears and trees. And, unfortunately, they were exterminated shortly after the Yukon River Chinook.”

Zimmerman said that even in death, salmon play an important ecological role.

“Their carcasses are part of the nutrients we need in our ecosystems,” he said.

The decision will impact future generations

In a release, the Tanana Chiefs Conference, a federation of 42 villages in Alaska’s interior, says it “recognizes this action as a meaningful step toward protecting Yukon River salmon and moving Alaska toward more balanced and equitable conservation management across the state.”

This decision will reduce fishing time by boats in a commercial fishing area on the state’s southwest coast during periods when vulnerable chum salmon stocks are present – ​​giving them a better opportunity to make their way into the Yukon River and undergo their life cycle.

The affected area, known as Area M, includes the Alaska Peninsula and part of the Aleutian island chain. This is an area where the fishing industry is commercially important and includes many fish processing plants.

“This decision is an investment in the long-term health of our salmon populations so that our children and grandchildren can one day participate in subsistence fishing,” Brian Ridley, president of the Tanana Chiefs Conference, said in the release.

“For too many years our people have been living with empty smokehouses and uncertainty about how they will feed their families. Today’s action shows those voices were heard, and we appreciate the Board taking meaningful steps to protect our salmon.”