Alaska Board of Fisheries Proposal 156 is bad for Southeast Alaska Residents (and visitors) who rely on these programs for commercial, sport, personal, subsistence and community use. Your voice is needed.
Please submit comments to the Alaska Board of Fisheries by January 14. Comments may be submitted via their web portal located at:
https://survey123.arcgis.com/share/ff76ff8fe4e14a0b93e758eb38fd360a
Below are links to documents that will assist you in drafting your comments.
Southeast Programs and Talking Points to Use for Letters
In addition to writing comments, you may offer public testimony in person in Ketchikan at the Alaska Board of Fisheries Southeast Finfish Meeting January 28-Feburary 9. For more information or assistance, please do not hesitate to reach out.
ADDITIONAL ARGUMENTS AGAINST THIS PROPOSAL
From commercial fishing for chum salmon in Lynn canal & Taku Inlet, to shoreside sport fishing for Chinook & coho in the Juneau area, to personal use fishing at Sweetheart Creek, to education programs at the Ladd Macaulay Visitor Center…. The DIPAC programs as we know them are at risk. Please make your voice heard to OPPOSE Proposal 156 at the SEAK Board of Fish Meeting this January.
DIPAC has no intention of increasing chum production and is maxed out on water and land use. If proposal 156 were to pass, there is no evidence to support that there would be any benefit to wild salmon, but it would significantly harm all the users of the resource.
DIPAC has worked collaboratively with ADF&G, NMFS, NOAA, UAF, USFS & UAS to study the impacts of hatchery produced salmon on wild fish for decades. See our scholarship page for more information and check out the ongoing work on the Alaska Hatchery Research Project for some recent study information. https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingHatcheriesResearch.current_research
For more information on the carrying capacity concerns addressed in proposal 156, check out this recent presentation by ADF&G staff. https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/regulations/regprocess/fisheriesboard/pdfs/2024-2025/pws/RC3_Tab16_Alaska_Hatchery_Interactions_Research_Overview.pdf
For more information about the stringent hatchery permitting process, regulations, and policies, click here: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/regulations/regprocess/fisheriesboard/pdfs/2018-2019/ws/SP18-12.pdf