SITKA, ALASKA The vessel gathered about 60-thousand pounds of roe-on-hemlock and gave it away for free. About half of it was distributed in Sitka with the rest distributed among Hoonah, Angoon, Kake, Wrangell and Ketchikan.
The boat’s captain, Steve Demmert, lives in Washington state, not Alaska.
Tribal council vice chairman Mike Baines says the Sitka Tribe was concerned about out-of-state residents harvesting, even though it was done for free distribution to in-state residents.
“We’re here to protect subsistence,” Baines said. “We’re not here to stop other communities from getting herring eggs. We recognize that other communities have gotten herring eggs from Sitka Sound for thousands of years. That wasn’t our purpose.”
But for this year, anyway, the action will curtail delivery of the thousands of pounds the Julia Kae provided. When the Sitka Tribe voted to send the letter to Fish & Game, asking for better enforcement, then-member George Paul was the lone vote in opposition. At the time he said he was worried the move would foster ill will with other communities. And Baines acknowledged during a recent subsistence advisory council meeting, a member from Hoonah said he was not happy with the decision.
Baines also says that the Tribe did not protest the harvesting to its sponsor, the Herring Conservation Alliance.
“Oh, it completely came out of left field,” says Steve Reifenstuhl, with the Herring Conservation Alliance. “I mean, the response that we got from delivering herring eggs was phenomenal. I’ve never seen such joy and happiness and gratitude from people.”
Reifenstuhl says Demmert has captained the Julia Kae during the herring roe gathering for three years now. But before that, the boat was named the “Alice H,” and gathered eggs under its previous captain, Sonny Enloe.
Reifenstuhl also says the Herring Conservation Alliance says will try to get a provision to allow Demmert to gather eggs in 2012.
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