I would have said that I want stronger protections on the cultural fishing of salmon for potlatch and ceremonial purposes. I also would have said that we've had five years of no fishing with very little success in bringing that run back.
Through my work on the Yukon River Panel, we've learned through the years that the years when we've had those really large runs return to the spawning grounds were also years that we've had a full subsistence fishery. Based on those factors, it just doesn't seem like it's going to be a very effective tool. At this point, we've had over 15 years or so of restrictions on net size so that we can have those larger salmon escape. We've had all of these different conservation methods every single year. None of them have made as much of an impact as we would like.
I've heard this run referred to as a way of having more salmon on the spawning grounds because it's like putting money in the bank, but these are natural ecological systems that are very complex. It's not a very good analogy, but I understand how people who don't have backgrounds in fisheries can try to simplify those terms in ways they can understand. I get it, but at the same time, it's simplifying a very complex system in a way that doesn't quite relate to reality.
I would have also said that the only reason there is the amount of knowledge that we have on that particular run and the accuracy of that knowledge is because of those indigenous fishermen in the state of Alaska who have fished that river their whole lives, who have voluntarily given indigenous knowledge to the State of Alaska to manage those runs.