Board of Fisheries: Week 1 Summary

After one week of meetings, here's a recap of a few of the changes for Upper Cook Inlet (UCI) that affects the Kenai River.

The Kenai red salmon in river goal was raised which will allow more fish into the river. The 1% rule for commercial fisherman was moved from July 31st to August 7th (this can definitely impact early river silver fishing). The parity issues from three years ago have softened in favor of commercial fishing interests. Specifically, if the king sport fishery is restricted to no bait, the set netters fishing time per week will increase from 36 hours to 48 hours. If the king sport fishery goes to catch and release fishing, the set netters fishing time per week will increase from 12 hours to 24 hours.

The Board of Fisheries also established a new, large fish goal for the late Kenai king run. The goal is 13,500-27,000 fish. In theory, this should result in a greater abundance of large kings in the Kenai River. What I found out during the deliberations of the large king goal is ADFG has projected 30,000 large kings, and 10,000 small kings for 2017. This is an increase from last years forecast. It's good to see that the trend is going in the right direction. Hip-hip-hooray!

This upcoming week is what I'm looking forward to the most. This is the period when Kenai River regulations will be discussed. Make sure to check the blog often. I plan on posting as decisions are made.



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