At an October work session, the State Board of Fisheries will consider over a dozen “agenda change requests,” which are proposals to address fishing regulation outside of the board’s three-year cycle. More than half center on the Kenai River or its king salmon management plan, both of which aren’t scheduled to return before the board until 2027.

According to the form for agenda change requests, the board “recognizes there are times” when issues require “more immediate attention” than its three-year cycle allows. These requests will only be heard, the form says, for purposes of fishery conservation, to correct an error in regulation, or to correct an effect “unforeseen when a regulation was adopted.”

A request that is “predominately allocative,” the form says, will not be accepted.

Requests targeting Kenai Peninsula fisheries describe the commercial dipnet fishery approved by the board in March, use of beach seines as tested on local beaches this summer, and bait restrictions on the Kenai River.

Dipnet developments

Joseph Person submitted a request seeking an expansion of the season and fishing periods for commercial dipnetting, which was approved by the board in the Kenai River late-run king salmon stock of concern management plan and given emergency approval — but not permanent approval — by the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission this year. In his request, Person writes that after spending a season with a dipnet in hand, the gear is “clearly very low efficacy,” but that his fishery was able to operate without impacting king salmon.

He asks for more open time, specifically 12 hours per day every day from June 20 to Aug. 15, up from three 12-hour openings per week only between June 20 and July 31.

He says that model will allow fishers to get around variables like bad weather while still harvesting more of the abundant sockeye with the gear. He says the modification is warranted because the commercial dipnet fishery was new and experimental. The board now can make changes based on a year of learning.

A pair of requests, separately asking for a season expanded to June 20 through Aug. 15 and an expansion of fishing periods to “up to” seven 12-hour periods per week, are submitted by east side setnetters, including Person, who write they want to see their fishery “more sustainable and more economically viable.” There are 19 names on the request for an expanded season, and 21 on the call for fishing “up to” seven days per week.

They write that their fishery can further respond to large escapements of sockeye salmon without impacting king and coho salmon.

Person has also submitted a request to allow the use of a “lead” while commercial fishing with dipnets, which he writes would be a seine webbed structure like a funnel that would direct fish to a certain point where the fishers could be operating a dipnet.

Seine solutions

This summer, Brian and Lisa Gabriel led a test fishery operated under a commissioner’s permit to explore beach seines as an option to harvest target sockeye salmon without killing king salmon. They told the Clarion in July that they’d seen their nets work successfully — that they hadn’t killed a king salmon, that they could adapt the nets to different sites, and that they’d caught enough sockeye to be economically viable.

They’ve submitted a proposal asking for the use of set beach seine nets as a gear type in the east side setnet fishery. Their proposal describes a fishing season from June 20 to Aug. 15, with the use of one set beach seine net per permit, used with shore-based infrastructure. The nets may be up to 100 fathoms in length, 215 mesh deep with a maximum mesh size of 3-and-a-half inches. If gillnet fishing were allowed by regulation, a permit holder would have to fish one or the other.

“The method has now been proven as a successful ethical harvest method of sockeye salmon while successfully releasing all king salmon in excellent condition during times of king salmon conservation,” they write. “The set beach seine net worked on many beaches and fishermen will be able to use their existing lead lines, cork lines, corks, and infrastructure to prosecute the fishery without substantial expense.”

Taking the bait

A proposal that expanded a restriction on the use of bait and multiple hooks on a part of the lower Kenai River from Bing’s Landing upstream to the mouth of the Upper Killey River, was approved by the board in March. A group of Sterling-based fishers organized as Sterling Sportfishing Support this summer to pursue a reversal of that rule, which they say precludes some people, especially those who are older or who have disabilities, from the fishery.

Sue Stephenson and Donna Anderson, on behalf of the organization, filed a request to have bait allowed on a single-hook lure on that part of the river, from Aug. 15 to Oct. 31. They wrote in their request that affected user groups couldn’t provide input at the board’s meeting in March. An emergency order by the department on Tuesday placed a restriction on the use of bait through the end of this year in response to low abundance of silver salmon.

In May, 12 fishers from the group told the Clarion that they fish for coho salmon for food, and that aging family and friends rely on bait as they’ve lost their ability to cast a line. They pushed back on the testimony received by the board in March that said silvers are being caught and released using bait and also that fishing without bait is better aligned with “traditional means.” They pointed to reduced bag limits as a better solution for protecting silvers.

In the request to the board, Stephenson and Anderson write that they’ve submitted two emergency petitions and seen both denied.

Coho concerns

An additional request that may impact Kenai Peninsula fisheries is one seeking designation of Little Susitna River coho salmon as a stock of yield concern — calling for development and implementation of a new regulatory action plan. That requests was submitted by a collection of eight state legislators, not including any who represent the Kenai Peninsula.

The State Department of Fish and Game this year implemented multiple restrictions on fishing for coho salmon throughout Cook Inlet, with emergency orders citing weak runs. The legislators’ request, though focused on the Little Susitna River and other nearby freshwaters, both note that the decline in coho abundance is being seen “throughout all of Upper Cook Inlet,” and says they are “open to consideration of additional or other Northern coho stocks being so designated.”

The State Board of Fisheries is taking written comments on all the requests via an online submission portal at adfg.alaska.gov. The portal and the full list of requests can be found under “Regulations,” then “Boards,” then “Board of Fisheries.” They’re included as “Work Session” from Oct. 29 to 30 under “Meeting Information.” Written comments will be accepted through Oct. 15. The work session will be held at the Egan Civic & Convention Center in Anchorage and will be streamed on the same webpage.

Reach reporter Jake Dye at jacob.dye@peninsulaclarion.com.