Viewpoints
Fear is rampant in Ketchikan
by Scott McAllister
April 30, 2004
Friday
A wise man once said, the only thing to fear is fear its self.
Fear is rampant in Ketchikan
these days. The fear of annihilating, wiping our, fishing to
extinction or what ever, an entire herring population has gone
beyond reason and become an obsession to some. I don't fear the
annihilation of a herring stock; I fear the hysteria that the
purveyors of this fear raise and the resulting mob mentality
that fuels more fear. If pandered to by commissioners and politicians,
the management of our resources becomes a mob scene where science
and reason go out the window and favoritism and cronyism rule.
I fear the fear.
The real question that must be answered is where did the herring
that spawned in Behm Canal in the past spawn this year? Is it
a discrete stock that returns to W. Behm Canal like a sockeye
to its lake? Or is it a stock that never mixes of mingles with
other herring in the sea? Or is it a common stock with other
herring in the area that in recent years have spawn else where
and contributed to the growth of spawns that have occurred all
up and down Clarence Strait, Revilla Strait and their contiguous
waters.
The fearful have already answered the question and they want
us all to believe that over fishing is some how responsible the
disappearance of Behm Canal herring and in their scientific void
of ignorance they would just as soon see the fishing fleets burn.
This I fear.
Scott McAllister
Herring Fisherman
Juneau, AK - USA
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