To: Governor Mike Dunleavy
End Salmon & Halibut Bycatch
We the sport and subsistence fishing people of Alaska, demand an end to trawler bottom fishing of pollock, which produces chinook salmon and halibut bycatch. We demand a full investigation and the complete shutdown of this fishing industry until results show the trawlers don't take all the fish. We have a right to our fair share of this fishery through sport and/or subsistence fishing according to Article 8.3 of Alaska State Constitution.
Why is this important?
It appears that deep sea trawling is the culprit in the mystery of where have the chinook salmon gone. Studies show that the increase in pollock fishing on U.S. trawlers or "draggers" that drag the bottom floor and pick up EVERYTHING, has direct correlation with chinook salmon numbers going down drastically in the whole state. As a subsistence & sport fisher person on the Anchor, Kasilof, & Kenai rivers I am directly affected by the rapid decline in chinook salmon. The Yukon & all other rivers are affected too.
1. Regain ability to fish on rivers
2. Stop all bycatch practices & replace with safer/better fishing practices
3. Have 1 unbiased "watcher" on each trawling boat to keep them honest
4. See escapment returns grow to healthy sustainable numbers
5. Improve on CDQ programs through an all species inclusive sustainability policy
Go to our Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Trawling-Bycatch-of-Salmon-Halibut/407719715940319
PLEASE paste this address into your facebook page and forward to all your email addresses. Help push this petition! and Thank you!
1. Regain ability to fish on rivers
2. Stop all bycatch practices & replace with safer/better fishing practices
3. Have 1 unbiased "watcher" on each trawling boat to keep them honest
4. See escapment returns grow to healthy sustainable numbers
5. Improve on CDQ programs through an all species inclusive sustainability policy
Go to our Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-Trawling-Bycatch-of-Salmon-Halibut/407719715940319
PLEASE paste this address into your facebook page and forward to all your email addresses. Help push this petition! and Thank you!