Page 59 - Breath of the Bear

BRISTOL BAY Rich with Salmon

by Mary Catharine Martin (mc@salmonstate.org)

Here in Alaska, salmon sustain us. They counted. for a list of direct marketers at www.salmonstate.
hatch in freshwater, swim downstream to the What has been counted is this: between 2003 org/marketplace. We don’t make money from
ocean, grow bigger, and eventually swim home, and 2007, trawlers bycaught more than 400,000 this, we just think it’s important to highlight good
spawning the next generation of salmon. With king salmon in the Bering Sea alone. King salmon people doing good work.
their bodies and the nutrients they bring back are now declining in rivers across Alaska, with We’re hopeful that this undeniable
from the sea, they feed bears, other fish, eagles, Alaskans facing restrictions or outright bans on groundswell from Alaska will help spread the word
the land, and people. catching them. The largest and most wasteful outside the state: our oceans are ecosystems,
Alaska’s traditional fisheries have been taking fishery, however, continues full steam ahead. Just not pollock factories. They should be managed
place sustainably for countless generations. Our last year, in 2024, however, trawlers bycaught that way to prevent impacts to our fish and the
commercial fisheries are well-managed, providing 38,751 king salmon; 48,643 chum salmon; 4.5 creatures that rely on them, bears included. In the
tens of thousands of jobs, feeding people around million pounds of halibut; 3 million pounds of meantime, we can vote with our wallets.
the world. Our sport fisheries are an essential part herring; 950,680 crabs; and one orca.
of living here for many. While trawling may not be the only issue
There’s one kind of fishing, however, that 74% impacting our wild salmon, halibut, crab and other
of Alaskans across the political spectrum want to species, it is one with a clear solution on which we
ban: trawling. can immediately act — and one of the biggest
Trawlers are massive boats, mostly corporate- sources of hope, and potential action, comes from
owned and homeported outside of Alaska, you. As consumers, each and every one of us can
that trail nets the size of football fields. Those make a choice to support sustainable fisheries.
nets target low-value, high-volume species like We can do that by supporting restaurants like
pollock and flounder, which trawlers process into The Kannery — a Homer, Alaska restaurant that
fish sticks, imitation crab, and surimi. Each year, proudly bills itself as “the world’s first trawl-free
they bycatch and kill a documented 141 million restaurant” — and sustainably-caught wild Alaska
pounds of non-target marine life, on average. salmon. We can stop buying fish sticks, and Filet
They drag the ocean floor, ripping up and O Fish, and fake crab, and surimi.
crushing slow-growing coral, crab, and habitat in If you’re looking for delicious, sustainably- Tessiana Paul and Leonard Demientieff Sr. in Holy
Cross, a community on the Yukon River.
a way that never comes up to the surface to be sourced fish: check out SalmonState’s Marketplace Photo by Jacki Cleveland.

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