The Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) CEO Vivian Korthuis provided the following statement to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council regarding Agenda Item C4: Chum salmon bycatch, October 6, 2023.
Good afternoon, my name is Vivian Korthuis, and I am the Chief Executive Officer for the Association of Village Council Presidents, a tribal consortium of 56 federally recognized tribes (AVCP). I am Yup’ik and a member of the Emmonak Tribe. I will speak on agenda item C4: Chum salmon bycatch.
For the past four summers, the people of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, and across Western Alaska, have been deprived of the food that we have relied on and that has nourished our families and communities for generations. Our elders who have relied on and eaten salmon their entire lives have been abruptly deprived of their traditional food. What is happening in our villages and on our rivers is inequitable. It’s unfair. Tribes are bearing almost the entire burden of conservation of a species in crisis when our subsistence fishing practices have nothing to do with the problem.
While our tribal communities suffer the most heavily regulated salmon fishing restrictions in the country, the pollock fleet wastes thousands of salmon each season while the Council ponders the impacts of climate change. Climate change cannot be used as an excuse not to address the problems we are facing; climate change is a context, one in which we now live and that needs to inform fisheries management practices – including bycatch allowances. The salmon crash most likely has multiple causes and it will take a holistic approach to stop this crisis and rebuild our salmon resources.
Bycatch is one of the pieces to this puzzle, and addressing it is something within the Council’s and the Agency’s control and something that will make a positive difference in our communities. The Council and the Agency should take an approach to this issue that will result in the greatest improvement in salmon returns. This may include caps on bycatch, changes to Total Allowable Catch, time and area closures, and other options.
The discussion and analysis of different alternatives should fully incorporate and include local knowledge, traditional knowledge, and subsistence information. The Council should work closely with tribes and tribal organizations as full partners in this process. Quyana.
