Executive Summary
This report is one of four reports prepared by the Study Team that worked with the Alaska Board of Fisheries committee to examine options to revise the Nushagak-Mulchatna King Salmon Management Plan (NMKSMP). This report documents the process and outcomes from that committee, which met between February 2019 and April 2022.
During the December 2018 Bristol Bay Finfish meeting, the Board of Fisheries (Board) struck a committee to review Nushagak River and District fisheries and regulations, and to provide recommendations on a comprehensive solution to Chinook salmon management. Three Board members were assigned to the committee (Payton, Morisky, and Ruffner) and the selection of stakeholders to serve on the committee was to be done in early 2019. In February 2019 at the Special Committee Meeting immediately following the Alaska Peninsula/Aleutian Island/Chignik Finfish meeting the Board selected 8 Committee members representing the commercial, sport, and subsistence fisheries. The inaugural committee meeting took place on October 2019 and a total of 15 committee meetings occurred between December 2019 and March 2022. A final committee meeting was to be held in November 2022 to review this report and prepare for the upcoming Board of Fisheries meeting.
As a starting point for discussions during the first year of committee meetings, members identified the current challenges to, or problems with, management of Nushagak River king salmon fisheries. The focus was on challenges or problems related directly to the NMKSMP, but the discussion was not limited to challenges pertaining narrowly or only to the Plan. After discussing the fishery challenges faced by the Nushagak River king salmon fisheries at the initial meetings, committee members were asked to discuss what constitutes success in their various fisheries? Members were then asked to identify possible management objectives that, if implemented, would ideally fulfill the measures of success as identified. Finally, the groups were asked to identify possible changes or additions to the NMKSMP “action” provisions that direct ADF&G to act and that would, in turn, lead to achieving the objectives previously developed in this process.
In January 2021, the full committee reviewed and revised the lists and descriptions of the Measures of Success, Management Objectives, and Possible Management Plan Actions that had been developed. Shortly thereafter, work focused directly on clarifying possible regulatory management actions needed to achieve the management objectives, and further discuss nonregulatory actions needed. BBSRI provided technical information on certain topics, particularly management triggers and the effects of mesh size on sockeye exploitation rates, to inform and address questions raised by the committee. By April 7, 2022, the committee had reached consensus on seven proposed actions. The committee examined five other actions in detail but failed to reach consensus on them. On behalf of the Committee, the Study Team submitted a proposal to the Board of Fisheries in April 2022 to modify the Plan by directly inserting the management objectives and regulatory actions with consensus above.
The seven proposed actions submitted to the Board of Fisheries in April 2022 included the following.
1. Manage large sockeye runs so that escapements fall in the upper portion of the escapement goal range.
2. Use a Nushagak District Test Fishery to assess relative abundance of sockeye and king salmon.
3. Modify/Clarify the Wood River trigger and establish a Nushagak River trigger.
4. Provide a directed commercial fishery for King Salmon when surplus clearly exists.
5. Modify/reduce the annual limit for king salmon.
6. Avoid complete closures of the sport fishery when possible.
7. Provide ADF&G with flexibility to restrict but not close the subsistence fishery in low inriver run scenarios and standardize subsistence fishing schedule and area under a restricted scenario.
Five actions that were considered but failed to garner committee consensus included the following.
1. Restrict mesh size in regulation to better conserve king salmon and exploit sockeye salmon.
2. Better adhere to existing regulations and/or Modify the Nushagak District Allocation Plan to make clearer a priority for escapement of sockeye and king salmon.
3. Mitigate Bay-wide Fleet Dynamics that Exacerbate early season harvest rates in the Nushagak District by modifying the Transfer Period.
4. Reduce and Mitigate Continuous Commercial Fishing in the Nushagak District where possible.
5. Keep all Non‐Subsistence Fisheries closed until the king salmon escapement goals have been met.
The committee concluded there are substantial limits to what changes in the management Plan can do to improve king salmon management and the fisheries that depend on them. During deliberations of fishery challenges and subsequent topics, the committee identified numerous needed improvements that are outside the regulatory scope of the Plan. Fulfilling these information needs offers greater potential to improve the fisheries than modifications to the Plan. Some on the committee felt that these things need to precede any Plan changes and that if these issues remain, the Plan will remain largely ineffective at achieving success in the fishery. These needs identified by the committee are discussed briefly in this report and will be described in more detail in a separate report.
Prepared for:
Nushagak-Mulchatna King Salmon Management Plan Committee
and
Alaska Board of Fisheries