June 23: And now we wait

Fishing was closed this morning at 9 AM - the end of the free fishing period. We had a decent showing about an hour before high water - at about midnight, but we rarely get any fish in the dark. We watched for strikes behind us as we cleared the net, and saw none. We also didn't see any way to deliver our salmon. The truck drivers told us they would be out at about 4:30 am. It can be a very long time between 12:30 am and 4:30 am. We reached the Jacqueline W and they were willing to run down and take our fish. So we decided to run through the nets one more time and then pull them. We picked up three more salmon in this process. Pulling was surprisingly uneventful. When the water is slack - changing from flood to ebb (like it was when we decided to pull) it's the easiest. Just detach one end, walk it around the boat to the roller and pull till you think you can't pull any more. And then pull some more, piling the nets at your feet in the process.

Now starts the "emergency order" period. From now until about July 17 or so, the fishing openings will be controlled by Fish and Game (ADFG) on a tide by tide basis. They have people stationed in counting towers in the rivers who count the number of salmon passing by into the spawning grounds (as in one, two, three, four...). Once the salmon spawn, they die. ADFG tries to ensure that the rivers get as many salmon as they need to ensure a healthy future, and not many more as the state's economic welfare relies partially on harvesting the salmon.

Fish and Game staff have an idea of how many salmon to expect this season, and they have methods of knowing how many are in the district and how many are about ready to show up. Their first responsibility is to protect the resource by making sure there is sufficient escapement, from the different strains represented by age group, time of return, and who knows what else for future returns. At the same time, they want to avoid over-escapement. I've heard two reasons for this: 1) a desire not to waste one of the state's economic resource; and 2) over-escapement is harmful to the resource. I'm not so sure about this second reason - I always think that before so many people fished off these stocks, there must have been what we'd now consider over-escapement and somehow, the runs continued without being managed. Maybe someone who knows more will help me understand this. Fish and Game has also been tasked with what I think is the unnecessary and cumbersome practice of controlling the proportion of catch between the gear types (drift and set net) such that non-residents in the Naknek/Kvichak area have more opportunities to fish than do the people who live here year round. I don't believe that was the intention of the regulation, but it has become its impact and I don't believe that the regulatory strategies to correct that impact have been successful.

So Fish and Game has adopted the strategy of counting the fish as they go up the river and when a certain percentage go up, they give us a fishing opening. If I look at the fishing fleet as one of Fish and Game's tools for managing the resources - the tool that prevents over-escapement - it's easier for me to understand the openings. Since they know roughly what to expect, but they don't know exactly when to expect it, the fishing fleet remains in alert stand-by mode. Usually we get about 12 hour's notice of an upcoming opening, but sometimes, usually in the heat of the season, it's much shorter. It's possible to miss one. It's really tricky for the drift fleet - if they let their boat go dry and then get a short notice opening, they won't be able to go fishing until the water has come up enough for them to float. That could be well into the opening.

As of this morning's tide, our total catch so far is 1536 lbs. Between openings is when we try to do everything else - sleep, shower, laundry, get the boats repaired, make sure we're ready for the next opening. I've found that a sure way to get a short-notice opening is to start a batch of bread.

Well, that didn't take long - I just heard that we'll have an announcement at noon. Of course, we don't know yet what it'll say.

Set nets in the Naknek/Kvichak district will be allowed to fish for 7.5 hours from 10 AM Thurs, June 24 to 5:30 PM, June 24. The drift fleet will be allowed to fish in the Naknek section only for 6.5 hours, starting at 11 am.

This season, the total Bristol Bay forecasted return is almost 40 million. Of that, about 8 million are targeted for escapement, leaving about 32 million for harvest, 31 million of that in Bristol Bay.

In our Naknek/Kvichak area, they are expecting a return of 3.8 million to the Kvichak system, with an escapement goal of 2 million; a return of 1.8 million to the Alagnak, with an escapement goal of 1 million; and a return of 7.4 million to the Naknek, with an escapement goal of 1.1 million.

Historically, the returns to the Kvichak and Alagnak systems have been huge. Old timers (the people I grew up with) talked of fishing with a shovel - just shoveling the fish out of the crowded waters into the back of a waiting pick up truck. Fifteen years ago, I attended a Board of Fish meeting and heard one resident testify that now, they have to decide whether to use the salmon to feed the dogs or the elders. Things had changed. I believe that Fish and Game is struggling mightily to manage the fisheries to rebuild the runs in the systems where they have failed. At the same time, the runs in some systems, like the Naknek, the nearest neighbor of the Kvichak, are as dependable as sunrise. I don't know if experts know or agree on what has happened to the Kvichak run, but it is getting stronger. Since 1986, Naknek/Kvichak district fishermen have had to fish within the mouth of the Naknek river for at least part of many seasons to reduce interception of Kvichak salmon, trigger the Egegik district to adopt a smaller boundary (the fish pass by the Egegik district and some believe that it is not a coincidence that Egegik started experiencing amazingly boon years simultaneous with the Kvichak's shockingly disappointing returns. The key to this suspicion is that shift in salmon catch pattern happened at the same time that the boundaries of the Egegik district were moved out, perhaps into the path of salmon returning to the Kvichak river.)

We were unable to retrieve our small ranger yesterday because its battery had been removed (I'm trying to do a better job of tucking things away in the fall), but could not be found -- until this morning. It's now being charged and we will head into town to bring it down in preparation for tomorrow's opener.