Opinion: Wild salmon are Alaska’s true heritage

Has been updated: Five by the time release date: 6 by the time

Tough times call for tough conversations. We need to talk about protecting Alaska’s wild salmon heritage. Bycatch, appropriation, and climate change are all taking a toll, and hatcheries are no different.

Wild salmon are Alaska’s heritage. Hatchery salmon are not. This distinction causes confusion in management, marketing, and harvesting because we are not widely aware of the difference. A recent commentary published on January 25th illustrates this point.

Hatchery-raised salmon are genetically different from wild salmon. Although the state recognizes the need for separation, this is next to impossible. Hatched salmon are released into the ocean and compete with wild salmon for time, space, and food in the marine environment. When hatched salmon wander into intertidal zones and wild streams, they threaten the genetic diversity of wild stocks.

Alaska’s PNP (private non-profit) salmon hatchery system was established to increase wild salmon populations for commercial reasons. Apart from the sports hatchery, the PNP relies on enhanced taxes, cost recovery, and financing for significant operating costs. We had a territorial history when the Alaska Hatchery Act was passed in 1974, but recent numbers have shown that adding more fish to the ocean could make wild salmon declines even worse. I didn’t have a decade of ecological knowledge.

A mixed wild and hatchery salmon fishery may support thousands of Alaskans and non-Alaskans, but it’s no consolation for the thousands of Alaskans who have lost their traditional access to wild salmon. . Their pain is searing and brutal, and the pain is downwards. Chinook are in decline across the state, with fishing opportunities closed or reduced in many locations. In AYK (Arctic, Yukon Territory, Kuskokwim), wild white clover and silverfish have been decimated and virtually all fishing has ceased. The sockeye salmon are getting smaller. This deeply threatens the food security and cultural well-being of thousands of Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations, and indeed all creatures that depend on salmon, from the headwaters of the Yukon River in Canada to the Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska. .

Before we can feed the world, we must first feed Alaskans. Our state constitution makes it clear that we manage our natural resources for the benefit of Alaskans. We have a strict Sustainable Salmon Policy that defines the principles that should be used to guide management, but these principles are too often ignored. The onus should be to prove that our management practices, including hatcheries, are not negatively impacting wild salmon populations.

If we don’t address the root causes of wild salmon decline, wild stocks may become extinct and we may all end up eating hatchery pinks. You can’t just blame the climate. We cannot “grow up” to return to an environment where wild salmon are abundant. And we cannot ignore the growing evidence of negative impacts on hatcheries.

Salmon runs have fluctuated over millennia, but in the past 150 years, human influence has completely wiped out wild salmon runs in both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. There are many factors contributing to the decline, including fragmented management systems and a reluctance to systematically consider our efforts to protect wild resources.

Reducing the overpopulation of hatchery pinks is the first step. Although the Board of Fish proposals offer incremental changes, they cannot fully address these differences in soundbites. We need continued strong dialogue with stakeholders and scientists in Alaska, Canada, and the Pacific Northwest.

Will we protect wild salmon stocks or rely on hatcheries for the future? This did not work well in the Pacific Northwest. We cannot afford to make the same mistakes that endanger or wipe out wild salmon elsewhere. We have the choice to make difficult decisions to protect our true wild salmon heritage.

Virgil Amphenol He is a former member of the Fisheries Commission, a long-time member of the Fish and Game Advisory Committee, an advisor to the Yukon River Panel, and one of the authors of the Sustainable Salmon Policy. He owns a processing plant in Fairbanks.

Karma Urvi He serves as the Village Chief of Eagle First Nation, Chair of the Fish and Game Advisory Committee, and Chair of the Yukon Sub-Tribal Fish Commission. She lives her self-sufficient life in Eagle Village.

Gail Vick He chairs the Fisheries Subcommittee of the Fairbanks Fish and Game Advisory Committee. A former subsistence and commercial fisherman, she has been involved in fisheries policy consultations since 1991.

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