Alaskan tribes petition NPFMC to cut chinook bycatch 66% for Bering Sea's pollock fishery
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [KTVF] September 19, 2014
Today, the Tanana Chiefs Conference and Association of Village Council Presidents filed a petition with the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council to protect the rapidly declining Western Alaska Chinook salmon stocks.
The petition asks for an order to reduce the Chinook Salmon by–catch in the Bering sea–Aleutian Islands Pollock fishery.
It would cut by–catch from 60 thousand down to 20 thousand.
T–C–C officials said the Chinook salmon stocks are crashing, and they need to do everything possible to reverse the trend.
Natasha Singh, T-C-C General Counsel, said "It's easy for us in Fairbanks to sit in our offices and our homes when we have Safeway and Fred Meyer right down the road. But in our rural villages, our residents, our tribal members are fully dependent on the subsistence resources. These are not wealthy people. They're actually going out to hunt and fish to provide for their families."
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