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CLARION P E N I N S U L A
SEPTEMBER 7, 2014 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 291
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Winding down
Cook Inlet sport fishermen, faced newly restrictive fisheries By MOLLY DISCHNER and RASHAH MCCHESNEY Morris News Service - Alaska
Kenai River sport fisheries saw several changes this summer — including a closure of the early king run, new gear restrictions and pairings with the commercial fisheries. Fishery management started conservatively, said Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Sport Fish biologist Robert Begich. In the end that paid off, as both the early and late-run kings met their escapement goals. The preliminary estimate is that the total run of Kenai River late-run kings was about 18,000 or 19,000 fish, said ADFG Division of Commercial Fisheries area management biologist Pat Shields, which was similar to the preseason forecast. ADFG estimated the escapement at about 16,061 kings. The run size estimate includes the fish that are harvested and the fish that make it into the river. Reaching that goal involved managing under certain changes Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion Top: Two sport anglers fish for silver salmon as the sun rises over the Kenai River, Monday in Soldotna. Anglers on the Kenai instituted by Alaska’s Board of Fisheries at its Upper Cook Peninsula faced a host of new restrictions going into the 2014 fishing season. Below: A commercial drift gillnetting boat leaves Inlet meeting in February, and largely meant that the comthe mouth of the Kasilof River July 17, 2014 during an overnight fishing period in Kasilof. See SPORT, page A-2
Cook Inlet drift fleet critical of new management restrictions C
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By MOLLY DISCHNER Morris News Service - Alaska
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The Cook Inlet drift fleet is largely done fishing for the summer, with a catch of more than 2 million salmon. Through Aug. 12, when fishing had ended in most areas, the fleet had landed 1.4 million sockeyes, 402,138 pinks, 65,678 silvers and 107,299 chums according to call-in estimates provided by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. United Cook Inlet Drift Association Executive Director Roland Maw said the average drifter caught about
Taking the fall
By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Women fleeing domestic abuse may be forced to leave behind loved ones, such as the family pet. The escapee will find the animal was killed overnight— almost without exception. Without their place of refuge having the facilities to also accommodate a pet, battered women will either remain in the situation causing them harm or, Photo by Rashah McChesney/Peninsula Clarion what likely feels like, abandon 14 people competed during the 5th Annual Bike & Skate Challenge Saturday at the Soldotna a member of their household. The LeeShore center has Skate Park in Soldotna. been responding to the link beevents. under category for scooters. did tricks they didn’t know, like tween domestic violence and Nelson Watt sat sipping a “I did things that I knew bar spins,” he said. animal abuse since opening Capri Sun juice, mulling over I could do, and the kids that Watt said he’d been “scoot- their doors in 1985 his first place win in the 12-and- didn’t, didn’t get medals. They For the first time fundraisSee BIKE, page A-5
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as the result of Board of Fisheries action at the Upper Cook Inlet meeting in February — including a change to the allowable fishing area, which led to the increased movement required to catch fish this summer, according to Maw and other drifters. Cook Inlet fisheries are generally managed with a commercial preference for sockeyes and a sport preference for silvers, or cohos, and kings, or chinook, salmon harvests. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough successfully advocated for the board to create a corridor to allow silvers to swim north and enter borough waSee FLEET, page A-2
Annual LeeShore fundraiser focuses on abused animals
By RASHAH MCCHESNEY Peninsula Clarion
Four boys sat on a concrete block, squinting in the direct sunlight and dripping sweat from an afternoon of jumping, flipping, spinning and wrestling steady landings out of their scooters. One had a bloody nose, another picked a large scab on his knee. They spoke intermittently as they watched a group of older competitors race BMX bikes up and down the ramps Saturday at the Soldotna Skate Park. For the fifth year, the annual Bike and Skate competition brought athletes of the two and four-wheeled variety to Soldotna — though no skateboarders participated in this year’s
18,000 pounds of sockeye. Most fishermen saw lower catch per unit effort, or CPUE, this summer. According to ADFG biologist Pat Shields, the CPUE never exceeded 500 fish for the whole summer. Maw attributed that to management plan changes that meant fishermen spent more time and moved around more to catch their fish, as well as changes in fish behavior and location. “All that did was increase our fuel cost, made us less economic,” he said. Like other sectors, Cook Inlet’s drift fleet faced changes this summer
Sunny 60/40 For complete weather, see page A-10 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Judge upholds salmon management structure hood, and the National Marine Fisheries Service removed Cook Inlet salmon from the federal fishery management plan, or FMP, after Alaska Journal of Commerce the North Pacific Fishery Management CounA federal judge ruled Thursday to uphold cil unanimously voted in December 2011 to the federal decision to remove Cook Inlet officially delegate that authority to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. from the salmon fishery management plan. Alaska has managed salmon since stateSee SUIT, page A-2 By Molly Dischner Morris News Service-Alaska
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ing from the LeeShore Center’s 26th annual RadioThon will be used for services to improve the safety of animals and their owners displaced by domestic violence. The fundraiser will be broadcast from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., September 8, on KSRM 920 AM. Currently two roofless, exposed kennels house any incoming pets at the Transitional Living Center, LeeShore’s emergency shelter facility, said the organization’s executive director Cheri Smith. Previously, up to eight animals had shared the limited space. Money from the center’s annual fundraiser has covered the bare bones of day-to-day operations, Smith said. Structural essentials come first, such as replacing a water heater, or constructing a new sewer system. But, the expansion of enclosed kennels is also crucial, she said. “It is a matter of life or death,” Smith said. Three in every four women in shelters who reported currently or recently having an animal, nearly three quarters reported that their partners had threatened, injured or killed their animals, According to a study conducted and authored by Frank Ascione, in a Battered Women’s Reports of Their Partners’ and Their Children’s Cruelty to Animals published in the See FUNDS, page A-2