ISER Lunchtime Talk: 'It Isn't Just About Participation: What Affects the Harvest in the Sitka Subsistence Herring Fishery?' March 5
by Michelle Saport |
Wednesday, March 5, 12-1 p.m. Diplomacy Building, Fifth Floor, Conference Room
Sitka Sound in Southeast Alaska is home to one of the state's largest commercially viable stocks of Pacific herring, which are harvested for their roe (eggs) in the spring just before they spawn. There is also a subsistence herring roe fishery in Sitka Sound. In that fishery, subsistence users don't harvest the fish, but rather collect the roe after the herring spawn, either from branches placed in areas where herring are known to spawn, or from kelp or other vegetation.
In recent years, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has increased the commercial guideline harvest level-and conflict between commercial and subsistence fishermen has also increased. This subsistence fishery is open to all Alaska residents, but the traditional subsistence users are the Tlingit people, who now report struggling to get enough roe for their cultural needs. Some commercial fishermen in turn say that the subsistence harvest is down because fewer people are participating.
About the speaker: James Shewmake, a research professional at the Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), earned his master's in natural resource management from the University of Alaska Fairbanks for his research on the subsistence herring fishery in Sitka Sound. He found that the size of the subsistence harvest depends not only on how many people participate, but also on other measures of participants' effort and harvesting opportunities.
About the location: The Diplomacy Building is located at 4500 Diplomacy Drive, at the corner of Tudor Road and Tudor Centre Drive. Parking is free. Call (907) 786-7710 if you need directions.
Note: Those who can't attend in person can join us remotely over the web or call (907) 786-6755, Conference ID: 475905. A recording of the talk will also be posted on the ISER website (www.iser.uaa.alaska.edu).
"ISER Lunchtime Talk: 'It Isn't Just About Participation: What Affects the Harvest
in the Sitka Subsistence Herring Fishery?' March 5" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.