SalmonState responds to petition to list Gulf of Alaska king salmon as endangered

A troller in Southeast Alaska.

JUNEAU—In response to a petition from the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy calling for Gulf of Alaska king salmon to be listed as endangered, SalmonState has issued the following statement:

"With this petition, the Wild Fish Conservancy is doubling down on its attempts to shut down fishing in Alaska without consulting with or speaking to the people they're sledgehammering. This petition is an extreme attempt to reallocate wild salmon that, once again, fails to consider or address the actual threats to Chinook. Alaskans and others concerned about wild salmon need to be working together to address threats from habitat degradation, to climate change, to hundreds of thousands of Bering Sea salmon bycaught and killed in Seattle-based trawl nets. Instead, the Wild Fish Conservancy is continuing to attack some of the people who care about wild salmon the most — salmon fishermen — and putting all of Alaska in a defensive position that will ultimately make problems worse instead of better."

The Wild Fish Conservancy is the same organization that has been attempting to shut down trolling — a sustainable, small-boat, community-based Southeast Alaska hook and line fishery.