Viewpoints
Defending the indefensible
by John Harrington
April 08, 2004
Thursday
Thank you Mr. McAllister. Finally
someone who will step forward and defend the indefensible. It
is interesting that Mr. McAllister does not like to hear us use
such words as "decimate" when we talk about the destruction
of the herring stock. But that was precisely what Mr. Doherty
described in his presentation to us in Ketchikan. There is no
argument. The harvest level has been established to precisely
decimate the West Behm Canal Herring biomass. My fear is that
it will go beyond that, and reduce the biomass to disastrous
level of the last time West Behm Canal had a sac roe fishery
20+ years ago.
Mr. McAllister's defense of the science used by ADF&G's and
their record is equally misleading. If sac roe fisheries on our
inside waters were not mismanaged, but growing as he suggests,
then we would still have sac roe fisheries in many places in
Southeast. Such as Juneau's Auke Bay, and south of Ketchikan
at Kah Shakes and Cat Island, and Lynn Canal, and Kasaan Bay,
and Zimonia Straits, and Duncan Canal, and Hydaburg, and Tokeen,
and Keku Strait, and Farragut Bay, and Port Houghton, and Stephens
Passage, and Port Pybus and Gambier Inlet, and Seymour Canal,
and Angoon, and Hoonah, and Idaho Inlet, and Tenakee (Hmm, did
I miss any?). But ADF&G's has mismanaged all of the sac roe
fisheries in the inside waters. The herring stocks have been
reduced in some places and almost totally eliminated in others.
It is insane, (all most by definition,) to keep managing our
herring resource the same way, but each time expecting a different
result.
John Harrington
Ketchikan, AK - USA
P.S. Extinction is certainly
not my concern, but just watch. Reduce the herring biomass dramatically
and the environmental extremists will move to federalize Alaska's
entire fishing industry.
Related Viewpoint:
"Extinction" of a herring
stock not the inevitable outcome
by Scott McAllister - Juneau, AK - USA
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