November 19, 2024
Chitina Dipnetters,
Jesse Wandling, who assumed the Chitina Dipnetters Association (CDA) president position near the end of 2023 has, for personal reasons, resigned as board president. At the CDA board meeting in October, after no other board member stepped up, I agreed to once again take on the responsibility of leading the organization. Jesse plans to remain as an active board member.
The Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF) meets every third year to consider public proposals guiding the allocation and rules governing the use of Copper River salmon by subsistence, personal use, and commercial users. The BOF meets this year from December 10-16 in Cordova, AK. Jesse and I will travel to Cordova to advocate for and represent CDA and all Chitina personal use dipnetters.
A number of proposals with potential affects on our personal use dipnet fishery are on the table again this year; many submitted by the Cordova Drift Fisherman United (CDFU) and the Ahtna Regional Native Corporation, seeking to place arbitrary restrictions on the Chitina Personal Use Dipnet Fishery (CPUDF). CDA has studied these proposals and submitted public comments opposing those restrictions. We have also submitted comments supporting the proposals that will affect our fishery positively. A PDF of our comments to the Board of Fish is attached.
There are additional proposals affecting commercial or subsistence fishing (those prior to proposal 58, start of the CPUDF proposals) that could have an impact on our dipnet fishery. We are in the process of more fully evaluating those proposals and may submit further comments.
The CDFU commercial fishermen have organized rallies in Cordova and Anchorage to get out the support for their proposals. I am asking all CDA members (and non-member dipnetters, so please share this email with your friends) to take the time to send in your personal comments to counter their efforts. Everyone who enjoys the Chitina Personal Use Dipnet Fishery should take a moment of their time to "Support" or "Oppose" the proposals affecting our personal use fishery. Five hundred+ dipnetters expressing a simple thumbs-up or -down opinion on the proposals will certainly be noticed. Better yet is written comment. Feel free to use or paraphrase our comments if you want to express yourself beyond thumps-up or -down on the BOF's online form.
In your comments I ask you to:
OPPOSE Proposals
44,45,46,47,49,50,54,55,56,57,60,61,62,63,64,65,66, 67,68,69,71
SUPPORT Proposals
48,51,52,53,58,59,70
Full text of the proposals for the salmon portion of the meeting may be found here.
Comments can be submitted online to the Board of Fisheries at this link. Written comments can be typed in the comment box following the area for name, city, etc.. Easy support or opposal to given proposals can be made by scrolling down the form to the Proposal Decision Summary section. You can click for thumbs-up or -down in check boxes for each proposal there.
The deadline for submitting comments is Tuesday, November 26, (not much time) so don't delay. Let's ensure the BOF knows dipnetters are united in exercising our constitutional rights to put wild Alaskan salmon on our tables.
Thank You!
Chuck Derrick
President
Chitina Dipnetters Association