by Steven M. Alexie, Kuskokwim River Subsistence User

A letter to Michael Dunleavey, Honorable Governor of the great State of Alaska.

Honorable Governor Dunleavey,

I wrote to you last Spring/Summer about the closure or at least a number of buddies coming through False Pass to migrate to their spawning grounds. While I have seen increased numbers of chum for our Kuskokwim River with less commercial activity for the Alaska Peninsula Area M Commercial Fishery, which I greatly appreciate for the well-being of my people. I also think your administration has not done enough to protect the Yukon King and Chum summer and fall stocks.

Below are one or more of Alaska’s statutes:

Alaska state law directs the Board of Game and the Board of Fisheries to provide a reasonable opportunity for subsistence uses first, before providing other uses for any harvestable surplus of a population of fish or game [AS 16.05.258 (b)]. This is often referred to as “subsistence preference” or sometimes “subsistence priority”.

That said, it’s clear to me that your administration, Fish and Game staff and commissioners, fisheries councils have failed us to meet this need for the people of the Yukon, Kuskokwim and also the people of Norton Sound , of which you are married in this region and have in-laws. Four years have already passed, and while you have delivered on some of the promises you made to Alaskan voters, you have failed Alaska Natives miserably.

For nearly a decade, the Kuskokwim River has come under federal management to conserve and hopefully restore our king salmon (chinook) populations to healthy, sustainable populations. Last year, 2021 was the first time since I can remember that our chum salmon collapsed, while we were under heavy restrictions with our neighboring river, the mighty Yukon River.

I’ve seen commercial fisheries in area M continue to fish commercially for what I believe were targeting sockeye salmon and accidentally caught chum in the millions. Nearly 2.2 million buddies were captured. I know that the majority of these fish were destined for their native rivers. These chum salmon that may have been linked to the Norton Sound areas, the Yukon or Kuskokwim rivers never made it to their spawning grounds for the next fish populations.

All salmon returning to any river system in the State of Alaska are essential and a vital part of our way of life and our subsistence ecosystem. I have seen elders from the past who have gone to stand up for the same thing that I am trying to express and make our voices heard. Our convenience store (Kusko, Yukon and Norton Sound Rivers) knocked on the door. Year after year we are heavily restricted to fishing. Fish populations continue to decline no matter how hard we try to conserve them.

I think the state of Alaska has to live up to its word, its laws, its regulations or whatever you call it. Subsistence comes before any commercial or sport fishing activity. In the age of high technology, I am surprised that we are not able to make very basic predictions of where these fish that we have been fighting for will go. What does the State of Alaska need to see before acting? An extinction of fish and wildlife? For conservation reasons, please make an administrative or executive order for a short closure of commercial fisheries in Area M. Or at least until a number of Chums and Kings have passed this area.

Thank you for your time and consideration on this. Respectfully,

Steven M. Alexie

Kuskokwim Subsistence fisherman

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