Jenny Neyman, of The Redoubt Reporter does a good review of the current [dire] state of Cook Inlet Aquaculture, with a good lead in story here.
Her first story investigates the loss of fry at Trail Lakes Hatchery, one of two run by CIAA. Part Two in her series of stories reviews the history of how millions of dollars in federal grants have been used on project after project that brought little to no benefit to fishermen.
For a related issue, check out this story on The Bear Creek Weir [operated by CIAA] Weir Attracts Brown Bears – Bear Mauls 12 Year Old Child On His Way to the School Bus Stop. Particularly revealing are the quotes in the article from local Seward residents about the weir and the danger it poses to this heavily populated [especially with young children] area. for instance, “Bear Creek Resident” writes:
I have lived on Bear Creek for 35 years, directly downstream from the weir. I camped and fished on Bear Creek every summer as a kid, starting in 1957. I see most of the brown bears that fish in Bear Creek often enough to recognize them individually. When the fish weir on Bear Creek has let enough salmon into Bear Lake for “available habitat” and Cook Inlet Aquaculture Corp.l (weir owner) has sufficient salmon eggs (taken from salmon in Bear Creek/Bear Lake) to run their hatchery at mile 30, they close off Bear Creek at the weir and trap all remaining salmon (potentially thousands of fish) below the weir in Bear Creek. This creates a static, artificiallly provided food source for the bears that they can’t resist. The bears stay in the area until the fish are gone, months longer than they would stay with a natural salmon run and without the trapped fish.
The week of November 15-18 brings CIAA back before the Board of Fish to ask for full allocation of all reds in Katchemak Bay as well as continuing to take the full harvest of all reds in Resurrection Bay, a STEAL of a deal that the Board of Fish awarded CIAA in early 2009, despite widespread protest by Lower Cook Inlet Seiners, who’ve lost their “money run” of early reds for two years to this failing and flailing aquaculture association. CIAA liked 100% allocation to them so much that their proposal is to keep all the reds forever to benefit their organization, with NO common property fishery.
We’ll be there ‘with bells on’ to protest any further unfair allotment of this public resource (oh yes, CIAA has a proposal to STOP SPORT FISHERMEN TOO in Resurrection Bay) to this single user. Please join us or send your comments to the Board of Fish Opposing Proposal #12. Here’s a link to the proposal download link pages, they are large PDF files.
