My Turn: Fishermen, communities in peril
When I came home to Cordova from commercial fishing Bristol Bay this summer I felt like I'd walked back into Naknek the fall of 1997. Naknek was the place I'd loved and called home for 19 years and summers before that. After a severe run failure in the Kvichak (a return on only 8 percent of the forecasted run), we were scared, desperate. Was our community going to have the resources to fund our schools, clinic, and public safety? Were we going to be able to pay our bills, heat our homes, and feed our children? Were the related domestic violence and substance abuse going to destroy us? It was a horrible time. I had to leave in order to be able to support my family, and thankfully, was able to come to another place that I dearly love.
When I experienced déja vu in Cordova this summer I wondered whether I would survive Round Two. Could I - or did I even want to try - to fight some more for the life that I love and that has supported me and my family financially and spiritually for all of my adult life? I've raised my children in a rural fishing community, surrounded by family and friends that share my love for the lifestyle and values that being able to work on the sea provides. My heart breaks for the losses that so many of us have experienced at the decline in our industry. However, I've decided to stay and fight. I love this industry too much to do anything else.
Much of that fight is political. Experiencing the extent to which it is political every single day in my job at Cordova District Fishermen United, I take my privilege to vote very, very seriously. And I've decided that the person that can make the most difference in that political process and to this industry - right here, right now - is Frank Murkowski.
Just this week we've become aware of two more assaults on the future of our industry in Area E by environmental groups: At the urging of enviro groups, the USFWS is moving forward in consideration of a candidate listing for Kittzlet murrelets under the Endangered Species Act; and, an appeal of the Chugach Forest Plan by Alaska enviro groups seeking marine water management by the feds, as well as the exclusion of "boating" as a traditional activity under ANILCA. These, on top of the already potentially devastating lawsuit filed against NMFS under the Marine Mammal Protection Act that targets our salmon net fisheries, dictate that we pay very close attention to the understanding that potential public officials have for the great harm the activities of these environmental groups pose. Our industry is already struggling under the changed circumstances of a global marketplace; facing the additional threats by environmentalists may well break us.
I'm also concerned about the meaningless promises that the Knowles/Ulmer administration has perpetuated. I resent Fran Ulmer's statement this week that she would "make" the NPFMC reconsider processor shares. No one in the Governor's Office has the power or ability to make that happen. That statement creates false and cruel hope. I resent the Knowles-Ulmer administration's hollow salmon disaster declarations that provide fishermen and communities with absolutely nothing that wasn't already available to us. Hollow words; unkind hoax.
Many seem to agree that effectively addressing the industry crisis requires significant changes in government policies and fisheries management. Where will we find that fresh look and those significant changes if we don't experience a fundamental shift in the bureaucracy, as well as the leadership? Ulmer has been an integral part of the governmental mindset that has contributed to the devolution of our industry to date. Can we afford not to support a fundamental shift in our leadership?
I believe strongly that government that doesn't have the potential to play partisan politics and that should be able to work cooperatively between the Legislature and the administration - at the state and federal levels - should be the most effective. I believe that we have adequate public processes in place to provide us the opportunity to safeguard our important fisheries habitat from inappropriate development. I believe that we need strong leadership to remove unnecessary barriers to responsible resource utilization, and I believe that leadership comes to us as Frank Murkowski. I don't want to live again through the decline of another place and the people that I love!