The Alaska Fisheries Council will be holding its Southeast meeting in Anchorage after all.

The council voted 4-2 against moving the meeting to Ketchikan despite dozens of comments from fishermen, tribals, elected officials and others in the Southeast urging it to hold the meeting in the area that would be affected by more than 150 proposals.

The Board of Fish was scheduled to hold its Southeast Finfish & Shellfish meeting in Ketchikan earlier this month, but a coronavirus outbreak caused it to be postponed.

When the meeting was postponed in Anchorage two months later, fishermen, subsistence fishers and others complained, pointing out that a March meeting could interrupt fishing seasons or shut voters out of the process.

So the Board of Fish — which sets regulations for commercial, subsistence and sport fishing in the state — met Thursday to decide whether or not to move the two-week meeting from the southeast to Ketchikan.

Dozens wrote comments to the board, including PeaceHealth Medical Center in Ketchikan. The health provider commented in favor of the Southeast meeting to be held in Ketchikan in March, despite the risk of COVID-19, saying the region’s medical system is well equipped to handle tens of thousands of visitors .

But despite comments calling for the Southeast to return, a majority of four board members voted to keep the meeting in Anchorage. John Jensen, the only board member residing in Southeast Alaska, said he appreciated public input but was concerned about logistics.

“A lot of people made their plans based on our plan to go to Anchorage — like me,” Jensen told the board Thursday afternoon. “[…] Much to the disappointment of many of my people who live here in Petersburg, I’m going to get chewed up for this – but my vote is going to be to keep the meeting in Anchorage and keep the plans we’ve already made as well.”

Jensen also suggested the possible solution of skipping the Southeast Alaska meeting this cycle and resuming in 2024. The last regional fish and shellfish meeting was held in Sitka in 2018.

After the move to Anchorage was announced, Ketchikan Representative Dan Ortiz worked with local officials and board staff to arrange March availability at Ketchikan. Ted Ferry Civic Center. Other state senators and representatives from Southeast Alaska wrote to the council in support of holding the meeting in the area.

Board member Israel Payton criticized what he called “political interference” by Alaska lawmakers.

“I’ve heard, quite honestly, from the politicians who have been involved with us in keeping politics out of the Board of Fish, and I feel tremendous political pressure from those same politicians to get into board business and try to augment what we consider to be best for the board and the process,” Payton explained. “I don’t take kindly to that. That being said, I appreciate what they do for their stakeholders.

Jensen of Petersburg, who also sits on the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, agreed.

“The reason this state came into existence was to remove the government from [the] fish management,” Jensen said, “And being respectful of our legislators, and I’m not trying to make it look bad, but government agencies that manage fisheries have never worked very well in the history of United States – or any other country for that matter – as far as [1215] when the Magna Carta was written.

Fish board chairwoman Märit Carlson-Van Dort reiterated the challenges of trying to hold large public meetings, many of which have been postponed and rescheduled.

“It’s literally almost balancing on a pinhead, considering all the fisheries and all the other schedule and scheduling conflicts that come up and have come up,” Carlson-Van Dort explained.

But McKenzie Mitchell of Fairbanks said her priority was to hold the meeting where the fisheries are.

“I understand the schedules are tough and it will be difficult to have both the statewide and Southeast meetings,” Mitchell said, “But I’m okay with doing It’s important to me to make sure we have a southeast meeting in southeast Alaska.

Mitchell and Willow-based board member John Wood – who called the special meeting – voted to move the meeting to Ketchikan, but the motion fell through, keeping the southeast meeting location at Anchorage.

The comment period for the 153 proposals submitted to the Board of Fish for the Southeast Alaska meeting has been extended to February 23.

The Southeast Alaska Board of Fisheries Fish and Shellfish Meeting will be held in Anchorage at the Egan Center March 10-22. Given the location of the meeting, the board said it would accept remote public testimony from certain Alaska Department of Fish and Game offices. The commission did not say whether this is the only form of remote testimony that will be accepted.