State Senate President Peter Micciche of Soldotna spoke to KSRM last week regarding the future of commercial fishing in the Cook Inlet. The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council voted in December to close down a large area in the Upper Cook Inlet to commercial fishing. The decision came after failed attempts to restructure how salmon runs are managed in the area.
Senator Micciche discussed his plans to correct that action in a conversation with KSRM: “The closure of the EEZ, which is the lower-half of the Inlet where all of us fish, that’s commercial fishers and drifters in Cook Inlet, I have one word for it: the word is unacceptable. What we need to do, and we’ve been working with our federal delegation – Sullivan, Murkowski, and Young – about a change that would allow state management of those waters so they can be reopened.”
He added: “In the meantime, we’re going to file for a stay so they can’t be closed, to give us time to work through that so that our hundreds of family fishermen in Cook Inlet still have the opportunity to harvest in those waters. Some fishermen only fish in the EEZ. A lot of the guys down south. I’m a drifter, have been for 30 years, and I fish about 2/3 of my season in the EEZ. So, it’s a big impact to not only commercial fishermen but also to businesses that provide goods to fishermen, to the processors, to an industry that’s very important to the Kenai.”
The Senator closed by saying that the Legislature is going to keep this fight alive: “We’re not letting go. We’ve got our teeth in that one and we’re not letting go until we get a solution.”
