Homer Alaska - Seawatch

Proposed by the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, the measure is likely to see opposition from seiners who already work those areas. However, it is up to the fish board to decide, according to Lee Hammarstrom, area management biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game in Homer.

"It's currently a fully allocated fishery to the seiners, so if the board chooses to change the allocation by allowing drift gillnets in, that's their prerogative," Hammarstrom said.

The Outer District contains some of the most rugged parts of the Alaska coastline, including Nuka Bay, Port Dick and Kenai Fjords National Park, as well as parts of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. While not the most productive salmon fishing available, it does provide some opportunities, according to Hammarstrom.

"There's fish that return to virtually all those bays. We currently have seine fisheries that occur in a number of those locations," he said. "We have active fisheries when we have a harvestable surplus."

Although Fish and Game does not enter into allocation battles, it might have some concerns involving expanding the drift gillnet fishery in some of those areas, Hammarstrom said.

"Reading perhaps a little bit into the proposals, if the intent of these proposals is to allow fishing off of capes, off of islands, and in open waters, then the department would be opposed to that because of the high potential for the interception of fish bound for other areas," he said.

That would definitely put the Barren Islands off limits.

"As far as we know, we have no documented anadromous streams in the Barren Islands, therefore any fish they catch there would be bound for other areas."

One specific proposal calling for opening Resurrection Bay to drift gillnets states that "Many gillnet fishermen can remember commercial fishing in Resurrection Bay."

Hammarstrom said that while historically many gear types were probably allowed in Resurrection Bay at one time or another, drift gillnetting was eliminated in 1964.

However, a few years later, in 1968 and 1969, gillnetters were again allowed and encouraged to fish for sockeye salmon bound for Bear Lake near Seward.

At the time, the state was preparing to make Bear Lake the centerpiece of a coho salmon stocking program by the Division of Sport Fish, and smolt counts had shown that there were two years of unusually large sockeye returns expected to the lake.

"At the time, the prevailing wisdom said that any competition with the stocked cohos would be detrimental to the success of that project," Hammarstrom saud. "So the department then wanted to harvest as many of these sockeyes as they could that were coming back to Bear Lake, these two big years, because they didn't want to put them back into the lake to spawn and compete with the coho program."

Drift gillnetting remained legal after the 1968 and 1969 fisheries, but was eventually repealed for good in 1974.

The Board of Fisheries meetings will take place at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center from Nov. Monday through Thursday. Public testimony will take place from 8:30 a.m. 2 p.m. Monday. Those wanting to speak should sign up at the meeting before 2 p.m.

The meetings also will be available online. There will be a "live audio" link at the Board of Fisheries website, www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us/fishinfo/index.php, before the meetings start.

Proposal books also are available at that website. For more information call (907) 465-4110.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its federal partners in President Barack Obama's National Ocean Council are coming to Alaska Friday for a town hall forum on Obama's new national policy for the stewardship of the ocean, the nation's coasts and the Great Lakes. The forum will take place in Anchorage but interested parties also can participate via Internet or phone.

Dr. Larry Robinson, NOAA's deputy administrator, will present an overview of the policy followed by a question-and-answer session.

The national policy offers "a unified vision and brings a comprehensive approach to preserving the ocean, our coasts and the Great Lakes and their abundant natural resources," according to the website.

It also identifies nine priority objectives that will be pursued to support the national policy, including: ecosystem-based management; coastal and marine spatial planning; resiliency and adaptation to climate change and ocean acidification; regional ecosystem protection and restoration; water quality and sustainable practices on land; changing conditions in the Arctic; and observations, mapping and infrastructure.

To find out more about the National Ocean Council and to register to participate in the forum via Internet or conference call, visit www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/oceans.

Cristy Fry has commercial fished out of Homer and King Cove since 1978. She can be reached at realist468@gmail.com.