The Kenai City Council voted on a resolution at their Wednesday night meeting requesting that the U.S. Secretary of Commerce veto the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s adoption of measures that will close commercial salmon fishing in the Cook Inlet Exclusive Economic Zone.
The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act directs the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to prepare a fishery management plan for each fishery under its authority that requires conservation and management. The Management Council developed a management plan for fisheries in the Cook Inlet Exclusive Economic Zone that effectively closed the federal waters in Cook Inlet to commercial salmon fishing, commonly known as Alternative 4.
City of Kenai Mayor Brian Gabriel, “We are down to very few processors that are in Cook Inlet. They’re a business just like anybody else, it’s not charity work for them. If they’re not going to make any money, if they’re not going to fish, then they’re going to leave. Once we lose those processors, it’s going to be very problematic to bring them back and manage the fishery in a cohesive way moving forward because if you don’t have the processors, it’s difficult to manage the fishery. Using our commercial fishery as a tool to do that when this Alternative 4 came into play, which was late in the game of a very long process, the court decision was made awhile ago demanding that they take action. Then they had these three alternatives, late in the game Alternative 4 lands on the table, 223 public comments opposed to Alternative 4 being chosen and only 1 in favor, and it got chosen. This is the next step in the process to try to halt this and move towards a more agreeable settlement of this issue to provide for management and opportunity for the drift fleet that also extends it out to our processors in Cook Inlet here.”
The commercial fishing industry has been an important economic activity in Kenai in the form of property taxes and raw fish tax. The Kenai City Council feels that the Management Council’s action jeopardizes the viability of existing local fish processors by limiting available supply and reliability of deliveries and would likely result in job loss in the commercial fishing and processing sectors, business failures and a smaller tax base resulting from the adoption of Alternative 4.
Resolution No. 2021-13 requests that the Secretary of Commerce veto the North Pacific Management Council adoption of Alternative 4.
