Three Southeast Alaskans delivered “traditional knowledge reports” to the Alaska Board of Fisheries this week (2-3-25). It’s the first time Indigenous perspectives have been officially incorporated into Southeast fisheries policy deliberations. The board first heard traditional knowledge reports at its January 2024 meeting in Kodiak.
Charlie Skultka Jr. is a lifelong subsistence harvester in Sitka and commercial fisherman. Representing the local advocacy group the Herring Protectors, he talked about the history of the herring harvests and advocated for a proposal the board will consider that would allow for tribal co-management of herring fisheries.
“If you want a working example, you don’t have to go too far down the beach. All you have to go is go as far as Washington state. And there’s been a working example in place for decades,” he said of the Boldt decision that made way for Tribal co-management in Washington.
“It would be cool to get a third party in and discuss this, because in order to keep this all herring going, we need to find out a way to work together,” he continued.
Robert Sanderson Jr., with the Tlingit and Haida Central Council, also delivered a traditional knowledge report to the board. Sanderson focused on the importance of salmon for the societal, cultural, and economic resiliency of Southeast Tribes. When asked by a board member about where Tribes are finding the most difficulty accessing the resource, he spoke about the effects of climate change in Western Alaska.
“A lot of our places out there on the West Coast, being on smaller islands, you know, with climate change, a lot of these rivers are drying up, and it goes all the way down to hard rock or anything. River beds are just dry. You can walk across them,” Sanderson said. “And you’re talking river beds that are mainly for a lot of chum salmon, and when we lose those, we lose a lot of our fish too.”
Paulette Moreno, representing the Alaska Native Sisterhood and the Sitka Tlingit and Haida Community Council, reported that herring populations in Sitka Sound have been disturbed by commercial fishing pressure. She urged the board to consider a proposal that would close Promisla Bay to commercial seining. The area has become increasingly important for the subsistence harvest of herring eggs in recent years as the spawning grounds have shifted.
“We have to find the area now to be able to get a good harvest, to be able to teach and continue this way of life,” Moreno said. “We need these areas protected. We need the boats to stay away so that we are able to have a good harvest for the mother herring that are coming to give birth.”
The board spent the first half of its second week listening to testimony. It will take up voting on close to 90 finfish proposals through the weekend.
