Idea of Gillnets in Kenai Troubles Biologists: TROUT: Ninilchik Residents Have Priority; If Method is Allowed, Rainbows May Fade.

By Brandon Loomis, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Jan. 11–SOLDOTNA — The serious prospect of subsistence gillnets draped across parts of the upper Kenai River this summer has fishing guides and state biologists fearing for the future of a trophy rainbow trout fishery.

Last fall the Federal Subsistence Board granted Ninilchik residents priority rights to fish in the Kenai River watershed by concluding they had customary and traditional use.

This spring the board will define the methods and bag limit: The Ninilchik Traditional Council proposes it be allowed to use gillnets in the river to take several thousand salmon.

Any trout incidentally killed in the salmon nets also could go in Ninilchik freezers, according to the proposals, and the state expects that haul to be a big one — in part because the federal waters where the subsistence priority applies are in the river’s upper reaches, where the trout grow fat on salmon eggs and in most size classes are protected by catch-and-release regulations.

“I don’t see any way that you can put gillnets in that area without catching rainbows,” said John Hilsinger, an Alaska Department of Fish and Game liaison to the federal board. “And if the nets are of a mesh size to catch salmon, you’re going to be catching the large rainbow.”

Hilsinger is drafting the department’s comments for the federal board’s May 8-10 meeting in Anchorage. The state opposed the initial priority ruling and is apprehensive about the use of gillnets. Written comments from the public were due last Friday, though people still may comment at the May meeting or at a March 13-16 meeting of the board’s Southcentral Regional Advisory Committee, also in Anchorage.

The proposals call for Ninilchik to net fish in both the Kasilof and Kenai rivers, collectively taking 1,000 king salmon, 4,000 sockeye, 2,000 pinks when available, and 3,000 cohos.

The gillnet provision came as a surprise to upper Kenai trout guide Andy Szczesny, who will represent guides on a newly formed subcommittee to advise federal officials making the decision.

He said he’ll argue against gillnetting but isn’t holding out much hope for preventing it. Allowing Ninilchik to dipnet or have larger bag limits for rod-and-reel fishing would be better because it wouldn’t kill indiscriminately, he said.

“Give them the opportunity they need, but … don’t give them a blank check,” Szczesny said. “It’ll affect billions of dollars in the future of this (recreational) fishery.”

Ninilchik Traditional Council officials said only executive director Ivan Encelewski could speak for the tribe, and he did not respond to requests for an interview. In its proposals to the federal board the council has written that it can spread its harvests throughout the region and avoid harming other interests.

Maureen Clark of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Subsistence Management said it’s too early to discuss likely effects on rainbow trout or other fish because the proposals may change before the May meeting. First the subcommittee will meet somewhere on the Kenai Peninsula the week of Jan. 29, and then the regional advisory committee will recommend changes, she said.

The board does have a responsibility to consider sport fisheries, she said. “The board can’t unnecessarily restrict sport angling. … They’d have to have a pretty good reason.”

Hilsinger said any significant trout harvest would throw off the state’s management regime, which is conservative with regard to the species. “We’d have to assess the impact and figure out what would be the best way to adjust the sport fishery,” Hilsinger said.

The proposals also would likely affect steelhead, especially on the Kasilof, he said.

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Copyright (c) 2007, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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