Alaska Outdoor Digest

The source for important, timely news on hunting, fishing and the outdoors in Alaska.

Board of Fish rejects change in allocation criteria
The Alaska Board of Fisheries rejected a proposal from the Kenai River Sport Fishing Association to give more priority for non-commercial fishermen in allocating fish among Alaska user groups. The board voted 5-2 against Proposal 171 along pretty much historic commercial-sport fishing lines.  A more detailed recap of the... Read more
Who gets what fish?   BofF hearing allocation debate this week
The Alaska Board of Fisheries is in its second day of meetings in Anchorage on Saturday, beginning to take testimony on statewide proposals before the board. A lot of Saturday’s testimony was by commercial fishermen opposing proposal 171, a request by the Kenai River Sport Fishing Association for the... Read more
Updated Cook Inlet harvest data
For fishermen debating the impact of commercial fishing on Cook Inlet salmon runs, from the Kenai to the MatSu Valley, this updated report on commercial harvest from ADF&G is helpful: http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=commercialbyareauci.salmon_harvest This includes a breakdown by species–sockeye are the vast majority of this approximately 1.1 million salmon, but there... Read more
BofF to consider Cook Inlet closures on all fishermen
By Lee Leschper Should all Alaska fishermen, commercial and non-commercial, be closed out of fishing when salmon runs are not meeting escapement goals? Specific to Upper Cook Inlet, should sport fishermen and dipnetters also be blocked from fishing, when commercial fishermen are restricted because a run is low or... Read more
Board of Fish meets in Anchorage this week
The Alaska Board of Fisheries will meet October 17-19, 2017, at the Egan Civic & Convention Center, 555 West 5thAvenue, Anchorage, Alaska beginning at 8:30 am. No regulatory action will be taken at this meeting, but sport fishermen should watch several of the agenda change requests, that could affect 2018 salmon... Read more
ADFG to use set net fishery to fund July project
ADF&G’s commercial fishing division will launch an early June set net fishery south of the Kasilof, to pay for the July Cook Inlet sockeye test project. Bids for a processor to run the commercial fishery for the department were due this week. That set net fishery would be contracted... Read more