![]() But the Area M commercial fisheries are vigorously defended by Alaska Peninsula and Aleutian residents who depend on them.Īttempts to resolve the disputes reached the Alaska Board of Fisheries last February. As chum and king salmon returns in the rivers have dwindled and harvests have closed, residents have blamed Area M interception for contributing to those problems. The trooper citations add to the long-simmering dispute over salmon that travel through the Bering Sea to spawning grounds in the Yukon and Kuskokwim drainages. Kevin Whitworth, executive director of the Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, referred to the practice as “chum chucking.” The fishermen want sockeye, and “they don’t want to keep the chum salmon, so they throw it overboard,” he said. “It does occur, and we’re glad it’s finally getting acknowledged.” “I think many people from along the Yukon knew it happened,” Serena Fitka, executive director of the Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association. The species of discarded salmon was not disclosed, but it was potentially chum salmon bound for the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers, where there have been devastating chum crashes in recent years. The campaign, carried out in June and July in the region known as Area M, resulted in nine citations issued to captains and crew members for allegedly dumping unwanted salmon overboard, the Alaska State Troopers said in a statement this week. Now a trooper enforcement campaign by the Alaska State Troopers wildlife division gives some credence to those accusations. ![]() For years, residents along the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers have accused fishermen operating in marine waters north of the Alaska Peninsula of intercepting too many river-bound salmon, sometimes in hidden ways.
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