April 11, 2023 — A federal council made the unprecedented decision to take no action on choosing a new fishing management plan for Cook Inlet commercial salmon fishing Friday, after it said it was left with no good options on a tight, court-ordered timeline.
That means management of the fishery will likely fall to the federal government — which council members and Cook Inlet fishermen warn could severely limit the fishery.
At its April meeting in Anchorage, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council was supposed to choose between several potential management plans to delegate management of the Upper Cook Inlet commercial salmon fishery. The council manages fishing in Alaska’s federal waters, which start three miles offshore.
But council members, audibly frustrated, said none of the options before them were viable.
“The court-mandated timeline has forced this council into a box that we find ourselves in,” said Andy Mezirow, a charter boat captain out of Seward who sits on the council. “For these reasons, I can’t support any of the alternatives before us today, and I hope the public notes that fisheries management on a tight court-mandated timeline does not allow us to do our best work.”
The council’s been trying to figure out what to do with the fishery for years, following a lawsuit from the United Cook Inlet Drift Association over management of the fishery.
In 2020, in response, the council voted to close a large swath of Upper Cook Inlet to commercial salmon fishing. That area — called the exclusive economic zone, or EEZ — is where drift fishermen say they catch a majority of their fish. Kenai Peninsula fishermen and advocates showed up, en masse, to the 2020 meeting to object to the closure.
UCIDA sued, once again, to overturn the decision. The court sided with them last June and the state reopened the fishery just as the 2022 season was starting up.
That was a temporary fix. At its meeting this month, the council was supposed to choose a new fishery management plan, or FMP. It’s under court order to have a plan in place by 2024.