Board of Fish Proposals
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Ocean Gold
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Board of Fish Proposals
BoF proposals are out and on line now !! Start thinking of your comments for the meetings, it is important
Re: Board of Fish Proposals
Ed,
I read part of the proposals. I note two things of interest to trollers:
1. The gillnetters are going after restructuring the sharing of enhanced salmon. Specifically they want to exempt DiPac fish from the formula.
2. ATA is going after a better sharing arrangement of the rebuilt Chinook runs on the Taku and Stikine.
It will be important for trollers to be informed about these and charter issues as the board process goes on. I will try to go and copy a link to post here.
Back to reading.
I read part of the proposals. I note two things of interest to trollers:
1. The gillnetters are going after restructuring the sharing of enhanced salmon. Specifically they want to exempt DiPac fish from the formula.
2. ATA is going after a better sharing arrangement of the rebuilt Chinook runs on the Taku and Stikine.
It will be important for trollers to be informed about these and charter issues as the board process goes on. I will try to go and copy a link to post here.
Back to reading.
Re: Board of Fish Proposals
Hello All:
I strongly agree with Ed and Eric about taking a look at the proposal book and start to formulating your comments. When you send them to the Board of Fish, please also sent ATA a copy: ata@gci.net ATA 130 Seward #205 Juneau, AK 99801 907-586-4473 fax
Southeast/Yakutat Finfish
http://www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us/fish ... -props.pdf
Southeast/Yakutat Shellfish
http://www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us/fish ... -props.pdf
Good Fishing!
Dale, ATA
I strongly agree with Ed and Eric about taking a look at the proposal book and start to formulating your comments. When you send them to the Board of Fish, please also sent ATA a copy: ata@gci.net ATA 130 Seward #205 Juneau, AK 99801 907-586-4473 fax
Southeast/Yakutat Finfish
http://www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us/fish ... -props.pdf
Southeast/Yakutat Shellfish
http://www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us/fish ... -props.pdf
Good Fishing!
Dale, ATA
Re: Board of Fish Proposals
Dale,
Thank you so much for posting these here.
Thank you so much for posting these here.
Re: Board of Fish Proposals
Fellow Trollers,
I was reading the Sitka paper last night and noticed that the Sitka Fish and Game Advisory Committee will start reviewing and commenting on BOF proposals on the 29th. I will be out of town for medical check ups and a little R&R then but should be back by the time they get to Finfish on the 6th of October and the 16th of October. There are numerous proposals of importance to trollers. Ed and Kathy Hansen are well informed and I would love to hear from them what they think is critical this year at the BOF.
There has been a flurry of correspondence which I initiated on proposal 296, copied on the bottom here, which attempts to clarify the regulations to make it clear that the use of power to retrieve sport caught fish is illegal. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it is not written clearly enough to accomplish that without amendment. As written I believe it will jeopardize our ability to use our hand or power gurdies as downriggers when we are sportfishing salmon off our trollers. It is sponsored by SPC and I have requested that the SPC Board ask the Board of Fisheries to withdraw the proposal. Fortunately there are other proposals which deal with the retrieval of sport fish with power.
The reason I am so concerned with this proposal is that I have a long history of experience with the BOF dating back to 1974. I also served on the BOF for a short time and have served on numerous BOF appointed task forces and committees. I worked hard in the late 90's to make it legal for us to sport fish for salmon off of our licensed troll vessels and know what a battle that was (we won that one on a 4-3 vote). I believe that if proposal 296 is allowed to go forward it is likely we will lose our ability to use our gurdies as downriggers. This will effectively eliminate the possibility for me to sport fish for salmon off of my troller unless I buy electric downriggers. How ridiculous is that when I have gurdies all mounted already?
Anyway, if you are an SPC member you might urge your friend on the Board or write a letter to them encouraging them to withdraw the proposal. If you are really interested you could e-mail me and I could send you copies of some of the correspondence that has been going on about this proposal.
Proposal 296 -5 AAC 75.020 Sport fishing gear.
Amend the regulation to define allowable sport fishing gear for Southeast Alaska as follows:
(d) Sport fishing gear for finfish in Southeast Alaska will consist of a fishing rod that is a tapering often jointed rod equipped with a hand greip and line guides: upon which is mounted a hand powered reel used to deploy and retrieve the fishing line. A downrigger may be used in conjunction with a fishing rod but a downrigger may not be used in conjunction with a troll gurdy.
A downrigger is defined as a device designed to be used with a fishing rod to deploy a line to a selected depth and retrieve the downrigger line and weight. A hand powered, electric, hydraulic or power assisted downrigger is not legal sport fishing gear unless is is used in conjunction with a fishing rod and the fishing rod is used to retrieve the fish. Sport fishing gear shall be opereated in a manner conforming to its basic design.
I was reading the Sitka paper last night and noticed that the Sitka Fish and Game Advisory Committee will start reviewing and commenting on BOF proposals on the 29th. I will be out of town for medical check ups and a little R&R then but should be back by the time they get to Finfish on the 6th of October and the 16th of October. There are numerous proposals of importance to trollers. Ed and Kathy Hansen are well informed and I would love to hear from them what they think is critical this year at the BOF.
There has been a flurry of correspondence which I initiated on proposal 296, copied on the bottom here, which attempts to clarify the regulations to make it clear that the use of power to retrieve sport caught fish is illegal. Unfortunately, in my opinion, it is not written clearly enough to accomplish that without amendment. As written I believe it will jeopardize our ability to use our hand or power gurdies as downriggers when we are sportfishing salmon off our trollers. It is sponsored by SPC and I have requested that the SPC Board ask the Board of Fisheries to withdraw the proposal. Fortunately there are other proposals which deal with the retrieval of sport fish with power.
The reason I am so concerned with this proposal is that I have a long history of experience with the BOF dating back to 1974. I also served on the BOF for a short time and have served on numerous BOF appointed task forces and committees. I worked hard in the late 90's to make it legal for us to sport fish for salmon off of our licensed troll vessels and know what a battle that was (we won that one on a 4-3 vote). I believe that if proposal 296 is allowed to go forward it is likely we will lose our ability to use our gurdies as downriggers. This will effectively eliminate the possibility for me to sport fish for salmon off of my troller unless I buy electric downriggers. How ridiculous is that when I have gurdies all mounted already?
Anyway, if you are an SPC member you might urge your friend on the Board or write a letter to them encouraging them to withdraw the proposal. If you are really interested you could e-mail me and I could send you copies of some of the correspondence that has been going on about this proposal.
Proposal 296 -5 AAC 75.020 Sport fishing gear.
Amend the regulation to define allowable sport fishing gear for Southeast Alaska as follows:
(d) Sport fishing gear for finfish in Southeast Alaska will consist of a fishing rod that is a tapering often jointed rod equipped with a hand greip and line guides: upon which is mounted a hand powered reel used to deploy and retrieve the fishing line. A downrigger may be used in conjunction with a fishing rod but a downrigger may not be used in conjunction with a troll gurdy.
A downrigger is defined as a device designed to be used with a fishing rod to deploy a line to a selected depth and retrieve the downrigger line and weight. A hand powered, electric, hydraulic or power assisted downrigger is not legal sport fishing gear unless is is used in conjunction with a fishing rod and the fishing rod is used to retrieve the fish. Sport fishing gear shall be opereated in a manner conforming to its basic design.
Re: Board of Fish Proposals
Eric,
A mutual friend was telling me a story about years ago when you were adressing the board of fish. He said that you slammed a toy dinosaur on the table and told the board that "this is what your making us!". He also told me that you told the story of being born in the Wrangel hospital the year that they had the basement packed with an over abundance of iced fish. He said you said " I was born on top of fish, and i've spent the rest of my life trying to stay on top of them." He told me that you've always been at the forefront of fighting for commercial trollers rights. I just thought I'd remind you of that story, and maybe put a smile on your face, and, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for taking such an active roll in the fisheries, and inspiring so many.
I'm sure you've noticed that the Yakutat Advisory has proposal 248 hand in. This is a sound proposal and will allow for a greatly increased opportunity for trollers in the Yakutat area to catch fish safely. Cohos is what it will mainly help with, why they worded it as king salmon is a mystery to me, but the end results will be the same. It will allow the mosquito fleet to stay inside the 3 mile limit and fish safely. Any extra leverage that you or anyone else could apply towards pushing it through would be greatly appreciated.
I hope you and everyone else had an excellent season, and I hope your health check up goes well.
A mutual friend was telling me a story about years ago when you were adressing the board of fish. He said that you slammed a toy dinosaur on the table and told the board that "this is what your making us!". He also told me that you told the story of being born in the Wrangel hospital the year that they had the basement packed with an over abundance of iced fish. He said you said " I was born on top of fish, and i've spent the rest of my life trying to stay on top of them." He told me that you've always been at the forefront of fighting for commercial trollers rights. I just thought I'd remind you of that story, and maybe put a smile on your face, and, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for taking such an active roll in the fisheries, and inspiring so many.
I'm sure you've noticed that the Yakutat Advisory has proposal 248 hand in. This is a sound proposal and will allow for a greatly increased opportunity for trollers in the Yakutat area to catch fish safely. Cohos is what it will mainly help with, why they worded it as king salmon is a mystery to me, but the end results will be the same. It will allow the mosquito fleet to stay inside the 3 mile limit and fish safely. Any extra leverage that you or anyone else could apply towards pushing it through would be greatly appreciated.
I hope you and everyone else had an excellent season, and I hope your health check up goes well.
Re: Board of Fish Proposals
yak,
As I remember the story I related that I was born in the Wrangell hospital in September 1949 and the basement was being used as temporary storage for canned salmon. The rest of that line is great but I don't remember saying it like that. "I was born over salmon and have been trying to stay on top of them ever since." I will definitely use it in the future.
The dinosaur story is an interesting one. Here is how it went down. A charter representative brought a toy dinosaur to the table while he was testifying and compared trollers to dinosaurs. I happened to notice that it was similar to a toy dinosaur my boys had played with that was battery operated. When he was done he left the toy on the table. The chairman happened to call a break after that testimony and I went up and checked the toy out. Sure enough it was battery operated and working. I went to the charter guy, who I had known over the years, and asked him if I could borrow it. He said OK.
So I did my testimony and then at the end of it I said: "And in response to trollers being like dinosaurs. Don't count us as extinct yet, because, like this toy, and I turned it on and it crawled across the table, we are still alive." It brought down the house.
But I think my most creative line was at a NPFMC meeting when a high ranking Canadian from Ottawa came to the meeting and made a speech about salmon sharing during which he compared British Columbia to being like a "slice of cream cheese between two slices of American bread." I rewrote my presentation on the spot and concluded it by saying: "And in response to our distinguished Canadian guest I would like to advise him that in the United States more often than cream cheese between two slices of bread is baloney". There was a pause while everyone waited to see how he would take it. He laughed and everyone had a great laugh.
An important thing to remember in Board of Fish testimony is that you are selling yourself at least as much as you are making your points. Bringing humor and perspective to the table are always helpful.
As I remember the story I related that I was born in the Wrangell hospital in September 1949 and the basement was being used as temporary storage for canned salmon. The rest of that line is great but I don't remember saying it like that. "I was born over salmon and have been trying to stay on top of them ever since." I will definitely use it in the future.
The dinosaur story is an interesting one. Here is how it went down. A charter representative brought a toy dinosaur to the table while he was testifying and compared trollers to dinosaurs. I happened to notice that it was similar to a toy dinosaur my boys had played with that was battery operated. When he was done he left the toy on the table. The chairman happened to call a break after that testimony and I went up and checked the toy out. Sure enough it was battery operated and working. I went to the charter guy, who I had known over the years, and asked him if I could borrow it. He said OK.
So I did my testimony and then at the end of it I said: "And in response to trollers being like dinosaurs. Don't count us as extinct yet, because, like this toy, and I turned it on and it crawled across the table, we are still alive." It brought down the house.
But I think my most creative line was at a NPFMC meeting when a high ranking Canadian from Ottawa came to the meeting and made a speech about salmon sharing during which he compared British Columbia to being like a "slice of cream cheese between two slices of American bread." I rewrote my presentation on the spot and concluded it by saying: "And in response to our distinguished Canadian guest I would like to advise him that in the United States more often than cream cheese between two slices of bread is baloney". There was a pause while everyone waited to see how he would take it. He laughed and everyone had a great laugh.
An important thing to remember in Board of Fish testimony is that you are selling yourself at least as much as you are making your points. Bringing humor and perspective to the table are always helpful.