U.S., Canada put 7 year ban on all forms of salmon fishing in Yukon, Alaska | Hacker News Reader

U.S., Canada put 7 year ban on all forms of salmon fishing in Yukon, Alaska

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79 pointsnithinj16 comments

The article is missing significant context surrounding "reducing bycatch," so I'll try to provide a little.

Bycatching is a problem, because you have large trawler fleets drag netting for a specific species, like pollock; but, since nets do not discriminate, they also catch other fish and animals, including thousands of chinook. Those same fleets fishing for other species are involved in community development quota programs that share a portion of their profits with tribal Bering Sea coastal communities.

The Bering Sea communities are extremely dependent on such subsidies and a restriction on the trawlers to the benefit of Yukon and Kushkokwim tribes, comes at the detriment of Bering Sea tribes.

It's a weird situation.

Kinda sounds like how trophy hunting actually have hidden benefits for the local community and even to the hunted species (i.e., trophy hunting for lions can generate money for lion preservation). I’m of course no expert, this is just how it was explained to me.

Let's not use the term "trophy hunting". It's analogous to calling an OBGYN an "abortionist". People hunt for all sorts of reasons. The question is often not whether X number of a particular animal will be killed, the question is who will do the killing. State game quotas are set by biologists who are fine tuning populations. If the animals aren't killed by hunters, they will be killed by State wildlife employees. This process is a core tenant of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Model_of_Wildli... ) which is the reason why there has been a flourishing of game animals in North America in the last century.

But to your point, they are referencing two main funding streams for state fish and game / wildlife / natural resources departments:

1. Pittman-Robertson funds ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pittman%E2%80%93Robertson_Fede... ). The gist is that there's an excise tax on firearms and ammunition. One fun consequence of this is that hunters aren't making up the bulk of funds here, it's recreational shooters. A hunter may shoot 10 shots on a hunting trip. It's gun nuts at firing ranges who disproportionately pay this tax.

2. Sale of hunting and fishing licenses. This varies by state since states' wildlife vary in quantity and quality. Western states with prized large game animals (elk, mountain goats, etc) earn more from this funding stream than Eastern states.

To take an example of Vermont ( https://anr.vermont.gov/sites/anr/files/FY%202023%20ANR%20Bu... ), 36% of funding comes from hunting and fishing licenses and 33% from matching Federal funds. $7.1M of the $9.67M in Federal funding is from Pittman-Robertson ( https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/WR%20Final... ).

Sorry, my statement was not clear. I was talking more about the "hunting" they do in some African countries, and not about the North American system of hunting permissions. And what I meant is indeed "trophy hunting" where there is not much actual hunting involved: Locals will trap or corner an animal, so that the "hunter" will have nothing else to do but shoot.

I've had some of the best days of my life salmon fishing on the banks of little Alaskan rivers - grizzly bears walk by within five feet, bald eagles swoop in to grab a salmon, a whale jumps in the bay, a seal pops its head up and there are glacier capped mountains all around. To top it off my arms are killing me from pulling in salmon all day.

On many occasions I honestly felt like Nat Geo was pranking me!

Photos here:

http://theroadchoseme.com/salmon-fishing-with-bears-in-haine...

http://theroadchoseme.com/haines-alaksa-fishing-hiking-campi...

If you switched to Barramundi you wouldn't have to worry about bears ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuDJjSgUkHI

just crocs!

This is only for chinook salmon, which at least in BC has had relatively strict harvest restrictions historically.

The good/bad news: It's accepted that doing this sort of fisheries management is an effective strategy to replenish wild stocks, but does come with a serious set of tradeoffs in remote communities where the fishing industry is a large part of the economy.

This does tie back into farming being a more sustainable option -- unfortunately with the state of that industry it doesn't end up becoming a binary between the two;

Salmon farming practices tend to have adversely negative impacts on the wild fish population (disease spread, escape and genetic degradation of stock) due to how and where the farms are placed.

> But in recent years, that goal has not been met. In 2023, just over 15,000 fish were counted by sonar at the Alaskan-Yukon border.

Sounds like we waited too long.

I prefer farmed salmon to wild, purely for taste and mouth feel (ignoring health benefits). A fatty, farm raised salmon fillet is simply more tender and delicious. I mean, I’d rather eat a farm raised turkey than a wild gamey one…

Have there been any double blind taste test of farmed salmon vs fresh salmon. Color is an obvious differentiator but that seems like just preference. Maybe we shouldn't be catching wild salmon at all

As someone who lives in the area, there's a significant flavor difference. It's like asking whether there's a taste difference between farmed cow and game meat.

Its not about taste its about chemicals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XdNJ0JAwT7I

I'm fine with living to 80 eating delicious salmon instead of living to 85 eating less tasty salmon if there is a taste difference

If we don't have the habitat to keep the natural salmon a ton of other things start to decline. Have you been to any of these rivers or tried to fish them yourself? If you did you wouldn't be pro farmed salmon.

https://www.pbs.org/video/the-lost-salmon-8hjf4t/

A restriction on chinook/king salmon fishing in the Yukon river drainage is a long way away from a "ban on all forms of salmon fishing in Yukon, Alaska".

For one, commercial, sport and subsistence fishing of kings (which certainly seem to be "forms of salmon fishing" to me) in other areas is still allowed. Most salmon fishing takes place in Bristol Bay and Southeast Alaska and British Columbia, hundreds of miles away from the Yukon.

For another, there are six species of Pacific salmon, five of which are found in the PNW and Alaska. By far the largest commercial harvest is of sockeye/red and pink/humpback salmon, which this "ban on all forms" does not affect in the slightest. Chinook/king salmon is, and has pretty much always been, only a very small portion of the commercial harvest (and for that matter, the sport and subsistence harvest).

https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/fishing/pdfs/commercial/2...

Note that in 2023, 234,923 chinook/king salmon were caught by commercial fisheries in Alaska. By comparison, 51,817,007 sockeye/reds were caught (220 times as many) and 152,356,420 pink/humpbacks were caught (nearly 650 times as many).

This article is basically hot garbage.

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