Changes were made in the regulation of commercial fishery last week after an emergency board meeting of the Board of Fisheries. The emergency meeting was the result of a petition from the Kenai River Sportfishing Association and the Mat-Su Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Sportsmen’s Committee that claimed the language of the regulations approved in the spring varied from what was agreed upon at the triennial meeting.
Kenai River Sport Fishing Association Executive Director Ricky Gease, said that there were regulatory errors where the Board of Fish had approved regulatory language. The language in the original regulations affects where drift gillnetters are allowed to fish during certain parts of the season, specifically July 9-15 and July 16-31.
Fish Board Vice Chairman Keith Johnstone said that the regulations will keep the drift gillnetters closer to the Kenai and Kasilof rivers to try and make sure the fish caught are in fact heading to those rivers instead of to northern Cook Inlet rivers. Alaska Department of Fish and Game biologist Pat Shields said that the new expanded corridor reaches out almost eight miles at its widest point.
Shields said the emergency meeting basically cuts down the areas drift gillnetters can fish on specific days in July. He said sometimes these types of cases can travel deeper into the judicial system.
