We write as fishermen, Tribal citizens, processors, deckhands, plant workers, small business owners, teachers, parents, and community leaders from across Area M and the Aleutians East region.
For us, this is not an abstract policy debate. It is about whether our communities remain viable enough to continue to live here.
At the Feb. 18-24 Alaska Peninsula/Aleutian Islands/Chignik Finfish meeting in Anchorage, the Board of Fisheries will consider proposals that would sharply reduce June fishing time and constrain the adaptive tools built in recent years. These tools are working to reduce chum harvests. The board members know this from the data presented to them by state of Alaska biologists. We ask the board to step back from the narrative and focus on the record, science, and real-world consequences.
Our communities have already carried an immense strain. We have seen economic contraction, outmigration, and reduced local capacity. In this setting, commercial fishing is not a side industry. It is the economic base that supports households, municipal budgets, our schools, harbors, fuel access, and all core local services. When fishing opportunity is cut without a clear biological benefit, the impacts are immediate: Fewer paychecks, less business activity, weaker local government revenue, and less stability for families deciding whether they can stay.
No one in Area M is arguing against conservation. We are arguing for effective conservation.
The board asked for adaptive, in-season management. Area M fishermen and managers delivered it. Since 2022, fleets have implemented coordinated stand-downs, voluntarily given up fishing opportunities in real time, including closing Sanak Island to all June fishing, operated under tighter practices, and reduced chum harvests as a result. These are not symbolic changes. They are measurable actions with measurable outcomes. This cooperative approach has required trust, discipline, and unanimous participation across fleets, something rare in any fishery and unprecedented at this scale in Alaska. The results demonstrate success across the board, year after year.
That progress is exactly why these proposals are so concerning. If the board cuts June time aggressively and replaces adaptive tools with rigid constraints, you do not create better conservation. You reduce the fleet’s ability to respond in real time with management. You create fewer workable fishing days, less flexibility to stand down when the risk of catching unintended chum salmon is elevated, and more pressure compressed into narrower windows. In short, you weaken the only mechanism that is currently working.
We call upon the board to ground its decisions in verified data, not repeated allegations. Alaska’s fish ticket system, ADF&G reporting, processor documentation, and on-the-water enforcement are the management records used statewide. If there are claims of systemic inaccuracy, those claims should be substantiated with evidence. Policy cannot be built on rumor while disregarding official records, data, and documented compliance.
The science before this board also makes one point clear: Salmon outcomes across Western and Interior Alaska are shaped by complex, system-wide forces, including freshwater and marine conditions that no single fishery controls. The claim that further restricting one region’s June fishery will, by itself, restore distant systems is not supported by the broader evidence in the record.
We are not asking for special treatment. We are asking for fair treatment, evidence-based decisions, and respect for the people who live with the consequences.
Listen to the record. Listen to the science. Listen to the communities.
Do not impose avoidable harm on Area M families, workers, Tribes, and businesses to satisfy a theory that has not been proven. Protect conservation gains that are already real. Keep the tools that work. Make decisions that sustain both salmon and the communities that have depended on them for generations.
We call upon the board to consider the science and the real management outcomes, but also the people of our region. Many of our people have lived in this region for thousands of years. Generations before us depended on salmon stewardship to survive. Today’s fishermen carry that same responsibility. Many of us know no other home. And it is a fact that these proposals, if passed, will damage our communities to the point that many schools will close, and many families will be forced to leave.
Consider us. We are Alaskans, too.
Douglas Holmberg, Sand Point, AK; Cherilyn Lundgren, Sand Point, AK; Connie L Newton, King Cove, AK; Nikki Hoblet, False Pass, AK; Alex Jackson, Sand Point, AK; Arlene Wilson, King Cove, AK; Justin Wilson, King Cove, AK; Art Holmberg, Sand Point, AK; Edward Mack, King Cove, AK; Dwain Foster Sr., Sand Point, AK; Dale Pedersen, Sand Point, AK; Herman Samuelson, King Cove, AK; Rayburn Pride, Port Moller, AK; Jimmy Weaver, Homer, AK; Kurt Hastings, Sand Point, AK; Keith Williams, King Cove, AK; Marie Schliebe, Unalaska, AK; R. Wilson, King Cove, AK; Alvin Newman, King Cove, AK; Courtney Wilson, King Cove, AK; Kenneth Mack, King Cove, AK; Dean Pedersen, Sand Point, AK; Paul Ludvick, Sand Point, AK; Peter Calugan, Sand Point, AK; Madison Thompson, Sand Point, AK; Lena Hoblet, False Pass, AK; Carlin Hoblet, False Pass, AK; Logan Thompson, Sand Point, AK; Taylor Lundgren, Sand Point, AK
