Boats don\u2019t have wheels. This may go without saying, but as Juneau commercial fisherman Brian Delay joked Friday at Don D. Statter Harbor, it\u2019s worth remembering.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good thing our boats don\u2019t have wheels,\u201d Delay said, \u201cbecause if they did, we\u2019d be driving them through the front door of the Capitol.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though he was speaking figuratively, Delay wasn\u2019t being hyperbolic. Juneau gillnetters are frustrated. They start their season Sunday under uncertain seas: Not knowing what could happen in the event of a July 1 government shutdown, salmon management could be curtailed or shut down during the most lucrative part of the gillnet season.<\/p>\n
The Alaska Department of Fish &Game sets time limits and other regulations for salmon fishermen to ensure enough fish get upriver and past nets to spawn. Without those regulations, fishermen won\u2019t be allowed to fish.<\/p>\n
ADF&G has said they won\u2019t pull vital management teams from the field, and they\u2019re working closely with the Department of Law to figure out how they can still fund salmon regulation without a constitutionally mandated budget.<\/p>\n
But a smooth season of salmon regulation is no guarantee. For Juneau gillnetters, any hiccups in ADF&G management would be particularly untimely. The chum salmon runs in Lynn Canal and Taku Inlet, water bodies on opposite sides of Juneau, both peak in July for gillnet fishermen. (Gillnetters fish with long nets topped with a floating \u201ccork line\u201d and weighted down by a \u201clead line.\u201d)<\/p>\n
Every Friday, Juneau gillnetters look for announcements from Fish &Game that dictate an \u201copening\u201d that tells fishermen where and when they can fish during the week. These first few openings \u2014 which last anywhere from 24 to 96 hours or longer \u2014 there aren\u2019t many fish, said gillnetter Dave Meiners.<\/p>\n
But those July openings are crucial.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first few openings, there isn\u2019t much. But the next few openings, that\u2019s the meat of the chum season,\u201d Meiners said while walking to his boat, the Daybreak. \u201cAnd if there\u2019s a problem with Fish &Game, if there are some issues there, the fishermen are going to lose out, so there\u2019s a lot riding on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meiners passed by Mike Wallace\u2019s boat, the Annie V. Wallace\u2019s friend and fellow gillnet captain Shane Hostetler said he doesn\u2019t understand why it\u2019s taking the Legislature so long to put a budget together.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese guys don\u2019t know how to spend what they\u2019ve got, that\u2019s my opinion. I\u2019ve seen the state when they could balance the budget for $55 a barrel of oil, but as oil went up, they just followed it all the way up to $155. They just spend as much as they\u2019ve got,\u201d Hostetler said.<\/p>\n
Several other fishermen popped in and out as Hostetler and Wallace gave their opinions on the state shutdown. Many described themselves as politically independent. Wallace said he leans conservative.<\/p>\n
They all agreed that a July shutdown would be a business killer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s how I make my money for the whole year.If they don\u2019t let me go, I am screwed,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cJuly 1 is the peak for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
A lapse in management wouldn\u2019t just affect this season, Wallace pointed out, but future management as well. Fish &Game depends on data taken year-to-year to determine the health of salmon runs and regulate fisheries.<\/p>\n
As Wallace put it, \u201cIf they\u2019re not up in the creeks watching what\u2019s going on, then they ain\u2019t going to know what to do in the future, so they\u2019re going to be shooting in the dark trying to figure out a schedule.\u201d<\/p>\n
When asked, the five gillnet captains the Empire spoke to said the important thing is just to get a budget done. The details aren\u2019t as important.<\/p>\n
Delay said he\u2019s OK with an income tax or getting his Permanent Fund Dividend taken away. He\u2019s young and can still work. The most important thing is that the state continues to let him do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone feels entitled to a PFD. I\u2019m a fisherman, I\u2019ll pay income taxes,\u201d Delay said. \u201cYou can have my PFD, you know, but you got to let me go to work. Or if you don\u2019t let me go to work, then I am really going to want my PFD.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u2022 Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com<\/b><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Boats don\u2019t have wheels. This may go without saying, but as Juneau commercial fisherman Brian Delay joked Friday at Don D. Statter Harbor, it\u2019s worth remembering. \u201cIt\u2019s a good thing our boats don\u2019t have wheels,\u201d Delay said, \u201cbecause if they did, we\u2019d be driving them through the front door of the Capitol.\u201d Though he was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":25201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-25200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25200"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=25200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}