Fisheries committee  I guess, ultimately, I'm encouraged that the processes.... I think about the joint technical committees and the Yukon panel. The processes are there and in place. I'm encouraged by that. I am disappointed by the most recent development. I think a well-intentioned, full-lifetime moratorium makes some sense biologically, but the process by which that was done has actually hurt some of those relationships.

Fisheries committee  Let me speak to this very concisely. I've been involved in a collaborative project looking at the size of Alaska salmon of all the species we had information on from across all the state—over 12 million individual records of size of salmon—and all salmon across the species that we have information on have declined in size.

Fisheries committee  On the U.S. side of things, the Marine Mammal Protection Act has been incredibly successful. There are now way more nearshore marine mammals, such as seals and some other things, that used to be harvested by local people. That's not happening nearly as much anymore. There are way more seals than there likely have been in the ocean for thousands of years now because of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and because indigenous people have been displaced, erased off the landscape, and aren't harvesting marine mammals as much as they used to.

Fisheries committee  Thank you. Actually, I wanted to speak towards this earlier. This is a very important question. This is my opinion based on everything I know around this issue. When we talk about ocean bycatch, we are almost always talking about the pollock fishery and bycatch in the pollock fishery in the Bering Sea, and that there is very....

Fisheries committee  The Alaska perspective when it comes to hatcheries is that the large hatchery programs in Alaska are of two species, pink salmon and chum salmon, and primarily in two regions of Alaska. This is in south central Alaska in Prince William Sound and then southeast Alaska. Pink salmon are produced in Prince William Sound and chum salmon are produced in southeast Alaska.

Fisheries committee  It stands to reason that, if fish are being caught before they get to the river, they're not going to make it farther upstream and to the spawning ground, so absolutely. I mean, the real point is that, in these times when there's real scarcity, populations are struggling to have enough spawners such that they are able to produce enough offspring to replace themselves.

Fisheries committee  I guess what I would say is that all fisheries at some level are mixed-stock fisheries, so even within the river, you get different populations that are mixed up heading upriver. In the ocean, it gets bigger, harder and messier. I'm someone who has trained in fisheries and understands, and I'm a lifelong Alaskan, so I try to find and take pride in the successes that Alaska has had in fisheries.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for that. We have done a lot of really good science and we have learned a lot about the ecology, the biology, diseases and migration. We have learned a lot and we have done a lot of good science. My point is, science that helps inform decision-making around things that are actionable is what is needed.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for that. As the facts have changed, our minds need to change. Our opinions need to change as the weight of evidence changes. When I was studying fisheries 20 years ago, the ocean was really still taught as a black box—that we don't know what goes on in the ocean. There was not evidence at the time that the ocean was limited in terms of the amount of food.

Fisheries committee  Thank you for that question. I will be more punctual. I didn't realize that there was a six-minute response time, so I'll talk faster. I think there has been a response. The response has been that as the stocks have declined in abundance, there has generally been a decrease in the harvest and more and increasing restrictions.

Fisheries committee  I really appreciate that question. I think it was MP Arnold who was saying he wanted to stay optimistic. I, too, try to remain optimistic, but you also need to be realistic. My opinion has continued to change as the evidence has continued to change and as the runs have continued to decline.

Fisheries committee  I always defer to Rhonda, but I'm happy to oblige. Good afternoon. I'm Dr. Peter Westley. I'm an associate professor and the Wakefield endowed chair of fisheries and ocean sciences at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. I'm joining you today from the unceded homelands of the lower Tanana Dena people, who for at least 11,000 years have stewarded these lands and waters on which the University of Alaska now resides.