Just a Small Fishery

. .. .. .. .. .. These are pacific hearing spawning on the rocky shores of western Alaska. Every spring along the coast of North America, and more than a dozen herring fisheries

from San Francisco to Norton Sound, fishermen venture out to harvest tens of thousands of tons of herring just prior to their spawning cycle. The prize the fishermen seek is not the fish itself, but the herring eggs are row. During the 1960s, the Soviets and Japanese dominated the high seas herring fishing industry in the Pacific. Because of unrestricted fishing, however, led to over-harvesting so that by 1975 herring stocks were reaching dangerously low numbers. Up until that time, American fishermen had little commercial interest in herring. But with the collapse of many of the world's high seas herring fisheries, and with the extension of American territorial waters out to the 200 mile mark in 1976, Alaska's bearing sea coast began to attract considerable attention. According to that, the several herring grounds along the bearing sea coast had experienced only a very modest commercial industry, coupled with an even smaller personal consumption or subsistence herring fishery.

In quick succession, however, between 1976 and 1979, commercial herring fisheries in Togiac, Good News Bay, Security Cove, and Norton Sound began producing large tonnages of herring row. In addition to 1980, through the efforts of fishermen from three small coastal villages, the fifth commercial herring fishery in western Alaska was begun in Kocchic Bay near Cape Ramanzov. It still midwinter in Scamen Bay, Alaska, close to where the Yukon River spills into the bearing sea. But to members of the local Stoknavic Fisherman's cooperative, it's not too early to begin thinking about one of the area's great spring migrations, the rush of herring from their

ocean home into the spawning grounds of Kocchic Bay, just south of Cape Ramanzov. Although the herring have been returning to Kocchic Bay to spawn for thousands of years, local fishermen have only recently shown an interest in their activities. It occurred on by the obvious success enjoyed by neighboring herring fisheries, and with the help of two regional fishermen's advocacy groups, villagers from Hooper Bay, Chivac, and Scamen Bay began in 1978 to seriously plan for the development of their own commercial fishery. As a first step, the villagers created the Kocchic Fishing Corporation to act as the middle man between the fishermen and the state. Lead money for the fishery was provided by the Alaska Renewable Resources Corporation, an enterprise funding state agency that loaned Kocchic Corporation, $300,000. Under terms of the loan agreement, the Stoknavic Fisherman's cooperative retained a majority, 51% share of the newly created Kocchic Corporation, while the state held a remaining 49%.

With their yearly earnings from the herring fishery, the villagers are slowly repaying the loan and purchasing the state's interest in Kocchic. Now, in January 1984, after four years of ever-increasing success, members of the fishing cooperative from Hooper Bay and Chivac have come to Scamen Bay by snow machine to discuss the upcoming herring season, and to meet with Bob Bingham representing sea-row fisheries, the herring processor with whom the fishermen have had a contract for the past two seasons. The price the processor will pay to the villagers during the 1984 season is of the utmost concern to the fishermen, but with the primary market for the finished row product located several thousand miles away in Japan, it's often difficult for village fishermen to keep on top of all the factors that help determine the price. As chairman of the board of Kocchic Corporation and himself one of the more active herring fishermen, Joe Paniac of Chivac is well aware of the unpredictability of the market.

The price fluctuates like in our first year, the price was very low, and in our second year it was a little better than in our third year it went down again, and this last season it was better, you know, and it's kind of hard to tell this conversation because of the reports that we've been herring from other areas. Although the fishermen this year, as every year, are hoping for an increase in the price they will receive for their 1984 catch, Bingham explains the considerations, the processor ways as he negotiates with the fishermen. Well for 1984 I would propose the same terms of contract that you have for 1983, we don't know what the market conditions are going to be at this time, you don't expect them

to be any better than 1983, and there's a possibility that there may be some weakening of the market, but that's too early at this point to know with any certainty just what may develop from that. There is one aspect, the fishermen in San Francisco are receiving somewhat less than we received last year at the beginning of the fishery, but it is very, very early at this time, it's too early to tell. These talks are strictly preliminary, the actual per ton price the processor will pay the fishermen for his catch will not be settled here in Scamom Bay, but on the herring grounds immediately prior to the opening of the commercial season. As events later revealed, the negotiated price hammered out between the two sides was at the upper range of prices received in 1984 by all fishermen along the western Alaskan coastline. Three months later, with the start-up of herring season only a few weeks away, fishermen

and Chivak began to organize their own yearly migration, a trek to the coast. Most fishermen just don't jump into the boats and go fishing, you know, we have to prepare like everybody else, we have to repair our boats every year, like paint them and turn up our outboard motors and get ready to go. Many of these 23 foot wooden boats were built by the villagers themselves, with money from the Alaska Renewable Resources loan. Together, the expertise needed to fashion these skips. Each of the three villages selected a single master carpenter, who, in 1979, was sent to Port Townsend, Washington to the Admiralty Boat Works to learn the craft of boat building. The skips were designed in Washington and then sent in pieces back to Alaska, where the three carpenters, Paniac, Sebastian Casale of Scamom Bay, and Harvey Joe of Hooper Bay helped 30 interested villagers build their own boats during the first two years of the commercial

learning fishery. Take some energy, like if you're living here in Chivak, you have to hardly a boat down to the Hooper Bay, which is about 15 miles by snow machine. This year, there has been little snow during the winter. The trip to Hooper Bay, therefore, is slowed, as the snow machine told boats have to traverse their sketches of barren tundra. All fishing and camping gear, food for several weeks, as well as drums of gasoline, must

be hauled down at this time. Once in Hooper Bay, the fishermen have to wait until the sea ice breaks up before they can attempt to span the 25-mile open ocean passage separating them from Coptic Bay. The typical part is when you have to go into the open water and go into your fishing ground, because the weather is kind of hard to predict, sometimes when the south wind hits, you know, and there you'll need to be out here in the open water, especially when

you have a smaller skipper. Luckily for the fishermen, the spring of 1984 was an unusually mild one on the bearing sea coast, making the run to the herring grounds relatively easy. Each village has its favorite sight for setting up camp. For the fishermen from Chivak, the northern end of the bay is where they traditionally pitch their tents for a bivouac that might run as long as two weeks, depending on the arrival time of the herring and the strength or weakness of the run. Understanding only too well the potential power of the wind-driven waves, even in the semi-protection of the bay, the Chivak fishermen pitch their camps high on the slopes of the neighboring cliffs. Researchers from Scammon tend to arrive later in the fishery and camp further south, along

the interior shoreline of Kocchic Bay. Scammon bay fishermen also participate in the Black River commercial salmon runs. Consequently, they are not as dependent on Kocchic herring. But for the villagers from Hooper Bay and Chivak, the money earned from fishing herring at Kocchic Bay represents one of their major sources of revenue. All the more than one million dollars has been earned by Kocchic Bay fishermen since 1980. Much of that money has gone to pay back the Alaska Renewable Resource Corporation's loan, leading the remainder to the fishermen. It helps each fisherman because they help them financially. It's not much, you know, but it helps. It benefits, especially these two village like Chivak and Hooper Bay. This camp has been established, the waiting game begins, waiting for the herring to arrive, waiting for the resource managers to survey the biomass, the total amount of herring on the fishing grounds, and finally waiting for the fish to begin to group before they're

rushed to the coast to spawn. The Kocchic Bay fishery, like all commercial fisheries in the state, is regulated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. In the late 1970s, fishing games close monitoring of Kocchic Bay herring demonstrated that the local stocks were strong enough to sustain a commercial harvest. That information paved the way for the decision by the state board of fish to open the bay. Fish and Game biologist Mike Geiger, who has been intimately involved in the Kocchic Bay fishery since its inception, talks about his agency's many activities on the herring grounds. We have basically three people out here monitoring the commercial fishery. We also doing spawning ground work for going along to beaches and measuring the amount of herring spawn or eggs that's deposited on the fucus or seaweed. And also we do test fishing to sample the run to determine the age, sex and size composition of the population and also measure row percentages and the maturity of the herring as they

come in the spawn. By all the just Craig Whitmore and Steve Klach, measure the size, weight, age and sex of a sampling of herring, taken in one of Fish and Games' test myths. A 5th male. Another aspect of Fish and Games' work involves assessing the amount of row deposited by the herring on rocks and on kelp revealed at low tide. Although a single female may deposit as many as 60,000 eggs, the mortality rate of the row can be phenomenal. Of the millions of eggs deposited along the interior shores of Coptic Bay this season, Fish and Games estimates that only 10% survived.

Codfish, birds and water snails feast on the row. Warm weather, strong tides, or lack of oxygen can all work against the survival of the fish eggs. Despite five years of data taken from herring fisheries all along the bearing sea coast, much of the life of these fish still remains hidden. We have a late round early runs and a bearing of very unpredictable compared to salmon. Fish and Games' primary responsibility is to ensure the conservation of the species, so that the herring of Coptic Bay do not suffer the same fate as the high sea stocks that were over-fished by the Soviets and Japanese in the 1970s. At the same time, fishermen must be allocated a harvest guideline that encourages them to participate in the fishery. How to protect the herring stocks while at the same time allowing fishermen the opportunity to make a livelihood is the key issue for Fish and Games. Knowing the approximate tonnage of herring that has entered the bay to spawn is central

to resolving the conservation allocation dilemma. This year's clear skies and calm waters allowed Fish and Games staff an unprecedented opportunity to count the biomass. Well, one of the problems that remains off is that most years the waters are muddy and we can't use conventional methods to assess the biomass or the population size. Most areas they use aerial surveys to make estimates of the herring population. Lands off due to the muddy, but this year with quite fortunate to do the absence of snow meld off which has reduced the turbidity, plus we had exceptionally good weather. We've been able to do a couple of surveys this year, primarily on the north side with the waters more clear and we poured days ago we counted 3,300 metric tons on the north side and the next day we counted about low to 100 metric tons. This is a special announcement to keep her mounds off district herring fishermen on the

last part of the fishing game to commercial herring fishing season will open on 8 a.m. Thursday May 31st and continue to further notice the Department of Fishing Game test fishing and spawning ground surveys indicate that a harvest full surplus of herring is now available at Cape Hermounds off. Keep her mounds of district herring fishermen are encouraged to contact the part of fishing game crew at their camp for their first road as they have any questions regarding regulations or other fishery matters. Again to repeat the Cape Hermounds off district herring fishery will open to commercial herring fishing began at 8 a.m. Thursday May 31st and will continue to further notice this has been a special announcement to keep her mounds of district herring fishermen on the last department fishing game. Joe Paniac and two of his brothers in law, pious and Roger and L'Vaulha are up early that morning and head toward the herring grounds. Another brother in law, Dion and L'Vaulha and nephew Andrew Paniac operate the family's other skiff, pious who has not fish herring before is assisted by Joe in setting the

first of their two nets. Yeah. With the 300-foot net void and anchored at both ends, the fisherman set out for a second likely spot.

Returning later to the initial site, Joe and Pius lift the net to assess the strength of the run. Satisfied that the run has peaked, the fisherman decided to delay pulling in the net. Later in the morning, noticing increased activity just below the surface of the water, the men set to work, calling in the net and shaking out the contents onto the deck of the boat. The haring fisherman's dream of plugging net. More and more fishermen are attracted to this part of the bay, so that in a few hours,

the waters are strewn with nets. Even as fishermen are hauling in a full load, the emptied net is being reset off the other side of the skiff. With his boat loaded to the gunnels, Paniac moves out into the bay's deeper waters where the processing ships await. During the long side, fishermen must wait in line to deliver their catch. During the first year of the fishery, that weight could stretch into many hours as the fisherman themselves had to hand shovel the herring into huge nets or brailers. But more recently, the crew of the processing ship has been given the job of vacuuming the herring into the mother ships, reducing the weight to only a few minutes. While the herring are being transferred to the mother ship, fishermen bore the processor to take care of other important business. The agreement with Siro extends beyond a normal buying and selling of raw herring. Siro sells the fisherman outboard motors, fuel, nets, anchors, and other equipment at reduced

prices, bringing all of the ordered goods to the herring grounds just before the start of the season. Siro deducts the cost of these items from the fisherman's earnings. In return, the stochnovec fisherman agreed to sell their herring to Siro. This type of contract is common in Western-Alaskan herring fisheries. The agreement helps the fisherman by providing them with easy access to much needed equipment. The fisherman further benefit by being able to count on the processor showing up on the herring grounds. In 1984, the stochnovec fisherman took full advantage of the convenient purchase plan offered by Siro, buying more than $100,000 worth of equipment. With his catch neatly transferred to the processing ship, a fisherman sends up his Department of Fish and Game Permit card to have the weight of his catch, and the row percentage recorded. Fishermen are paid according to the weight of row in a sample of herring taken from the catch, a sample of 100 pounds of herring, for instance, that yields 10 pounds of

row is known as 10% row. At the end of the 1984 season, based upon an average row count of 8.6%, processors paid out just over $305,000 for herring caught in Copchic Bay. All but a small fraction of that figure was paid to the men of the stochnovec fishing cooperated. The villagers were able to enjoy the lion's share of the profits this year, due to a ruling made by the Alaska Board of Fisheries during a December 1982 meeting. At that meeting, a delegation of villagers and fishermen advocates came before the board to complain about what they considered to be the unfair competition offered by larger, more well-equipped fishing boats from outside the area. Those vessels came into Copchic Bay and harvested a major portion of the resource during the first two years of the fisheries existence. The fishermen explained that the small size of the fishery, compared to other herring grounds on the barren coast, called for extraordinary measures by the board.

Comparing booties to other areas like Norton Sound, the troop can't. There's a tight line is something like three to five thousand, you know, and we have only 350 metric ton criteria in a folks group. It's very small fishery. The board agreed with the fishermen, concluding that as the Copchic Bay herring fishery represents a major source of income for residents from the three villages, the capermans off herring grounds should be made into an exclusive registration area fishery on a two-year trial basis. So beginning in the spring of 1983, anyone who registered for the Copchic Bay herring fishery had the fish there and nowhere else in Alaska. And any fishermen who were caring at any other Alaskan herring fishery during the 1983 and 1984 seasons was prohibited by regulation from entering Copchic Bay to work. Exclusive registration has apparently been successful

for the herring fishery of Copchic. The first two years we operated, we weren't really too successful. The exclusive registration area is to help the local fishermen just to fish in that area. After having harvested only a third of the herring taken during the initial 1980 season, the local fishermen were able to take 88 percent of the herring caught in 1983 and almost 100 percent of the harvest in 1984. The 1984 herring season marked the end of Copchic Bay's two-year trial period as an exclusive registration area. If the villagers hoped to renew the exclusive registration designation, they will have to go before the board of fish once again to convince that body of the need for maintaining the fishery special status. For Joe Paniac, there is no question in that need. It is important to be an exclusive registration area for host because it's just a small