The U.S./Canada decision to put a moratorium on salmon fishing is met with various reactions from Indigenous tribes.
Whitehorse, YT-Indigenous people in Yukon and Alaska are celebrating a new chinook salmon management agreement between Canada and the U.S.
On April 1, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADFG) along with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) signed an agreement to rebuild chinook salmon stocks.
The agreement places a moratorium on commercial, sport, domestic and personal fishing. The moratorium will be in place for seven years, which is the full life cycle of a chinook salmon. It will remain in effect from April 2024 to 2030.
The agreement's goal is for 71,000 fish to make it to their spawning grounds in Canada. The U.S. and Canada have a minimum goal to get 42,500 fish across the border.
But in recent years, that goal has not been met. Steve Gotch, senior director for DFO's Pacific region, said the last time 71,000 Canadian-origin fish were counted was around seven years ago. In 2023, just over 15,000 fish were counted by sonar at the Alaskan-Yukon border.
While there's no definitive answer as to why stocks are depleting, overfishing, competition from hatchery fish, habitat degradation and the effects of climate change have been linked as causes of their decline.
The moratorium is being met with different responses by Indigenous groups. First Nations in Yukon, who have advocated for stricter measures to help protect dwindling salmon stocks, widely praised the agreement. As most First Nations in the territory are self-governing, they have an equal say to ADFG and DFO when it comes to co-managing chinook salmon.
Tim Gerberding, executive director of the Yukon Salmon Sub-Committee, described the agreement as a "huge step forward."
Gerberding said the moratorium on fishing was pushed by self-governing First Nations in the territory.
"We've got to put salmon first," he said to APTN News. "I think that's been the rallying cry of the Yukon First Nations. We've got to put salmon first. That means put salmon above our own needs, and that's the only way we're going to save them."
However, chiefs in Alaska are not so enthusiastic. They say they weren't consulted by the state when it came up with a new chinook salmon management agreement with Canadian officials.
"It was kind of just thrown at us," said Rhonda Pitka, chief of the village of Beaver, located approximately 175 km north of Fairbanks along the Yukon River. "It was a big shock to me."
Pitka, who is a member of the Yukon River Panel, said it's a different story in Alaska, where the state is mostly responsible for salmon management. It also doesn't have requirements to consult with Indigenous peoples on salmon management issues.
Karma Ulvi, chief of the village of Eagle at the Alaskan-Yukon border and chair of the Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, said she was disappointed the state did not engage in consultation with Alaskan tribes before signing the agreement.
"Decisions are not made in our favor," she said.
However, Ulvi said villages in her district placed their own moratorium on chinook salmon over a decade ago. That moratorium has not been effective, she noted, because trawlers and intercept fisheries kill millions of salmon each year.
Both chiefs said they also have questions about one clause of the agreement, which permits ADFG and DFO to provide limited harvest opportunities for traditional and ceremonial purposes "at their discretion."
Pitka said she would have like to have seen more clarity in the agreement. Pitka also feels true conservation won't happen without buy-in from tribes.
"Making these big sweeping changes is not the way to do it. You have to have a relationship with the tribes. You have to have a relationship with the people on the river."
