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For the second week in a row, the commercial purse seine fishing fleet will not have a mid-week harvest opening in the southern Southeast Alaska Districts 1-4 because of low numbers of pink salmon in the region.

“We’re just not seeing what we need to see for pink salmon abundance, in a nutshell,” Troy Thynes, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game’s Region 1 management coordinator, told the Ketchikan Daily News late Tuesday afternoon after the department released its midweek salmon purse seine fishery announcement.

As in the previous midweek announcement, the inside waters areas of Section 1-F and District 2, along with the outside waters Section 3-A, 3-B and District 4 off the southwest coast of Prince of Wales Island are closed.  Also as in the pervious week, there will be some limited mid-week harvest opportunities for the seine fleet farther north, according to Tuesday’s announcement.  A portion of the Amalga Harbor Terminal Harvest areas in Section 11-A will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursday, and portions of Section 13-B near Sitka will be open from 5 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday.

Pink salmon have long been a mainstay species for the seine fleet, which also focuses on chum salmon.

The department’s preseason forecast for the 2026 pink salmon harvest in Southeast Alaska was 19 million fish. That’s considered to be on the lower end of “average pink salmon harvest range” of 19 million to 33 million, according to Fish and Game.

Regular seine harvest opportunities began in late June, with the first openings in southern Southeast Alaska beginning with a July 2 midweek opening in portions of Section 1-F south of Ketchikan and District 2 off the southeast coast of Prince of Wales Island.

Portions of southern Southeast areas were opened along with some farther north sections for specific hours each Sunday and Thursday until Thursday, July 23, when only two areas farther north were opened.

Fish and Game included District 4 and portions of Section 1-F, District 2 and Sections 3-A and 3-B in this past Sunday’s seine openings, but noted on Friday that “pink salmon harvests to date have been very poor and well be below average for this time of year. Due to the low harvest and observations of low pink salmon abundance and escapement a midweek opening did not occur this week.”

According to the department’s “Blue Sheet” preliminary in-season catch estimates online as of Tuesday evening, commercial fishermen had landed an approximate total of only 269,000 pink salmon in Southeast Alaska.

Meanwhile, chum salmon catches in Southeast Alaska, which include the substantial seine, gillnet, troll and cost-recovery fisheries for hatchery produced chum salmon in terminal harvest areas, have been stronger, totaling about 2.9 million fish to date, according to the “Blue Sheet” preliminary numbers.

In addition to looking at harvest numbers, Fish and Game’s commercial fisheries managers spend a lot time doing aerial surveys of the region to see where fish are located along the shorelines and in spawning rivers and streams.

“We’ve seen a weak harvest (of pinks) so far this year,” Thynes said. “You know, our managers and (Ketchikan area commercial fisheries management biologist Bo Meredith) in particular, … he’s been out flying, looking at escapement, you know, looking for fish moving along the bays and systems, and he just hasn’t been seeing what he needs to see for pink salmon abundance and escapement.”

The survey work will continue ahead of the department’s next seine opening announcement, which is scheduled to be published on Friday ahead of potential seine openings on Sunday.

“Our managers around the region will continue to look for, look at pink salmon abundance, look at pink salmon escapement, and look for opportunities,” Thynes said. “… They’re working very hard, very diligently, trying to line things up for … future seine openings.”

Pink salmon runs usually peak in mid-August. One indicator of run timing is the ratio of male and female fish. Typically, the start of the run has more male fish, with the ratio shifting to a greater proportion of female fish as the run continues to its conclusion.

Thynes said that the current year’s run of pink salmon thus far is showing a higher-than-normal percentage of males, “which would indicate, you know, later run timing.

So, you know, we do have that going for it,” he said, “But, you know, time will tell.”

The post No seine midweek opening due to low pink slamon numbers appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

On Aug. 18, Alaskans will be asked if they want to change the way the state’s elections operate, but not in the way that most voters are thinking.

The sole ballot measure before voters in the primary election would reimpose limits on the amount of money that individuals and groups can donate to political candidates in state elections.

A well-funded campaign to repeal the state’s system of open primaries and a ranked choice general election — known as Ballot Measure 2 — won’t be voted on until November.

The measure on the ballot in August would prohibit political donors from giving a candidate more than $2,000 per election. Groups would be allowed to give no more than $4,000 per candidate per election.

Both limits would be adjusted for inflation every 10 years, and they would only apply to state-level elections — for governor, state House and state Senate.

Federal elections, those for President, U.S. Senate and U.S. House, operate under different limits enshrined in federal law.

A low-budget group called Citizens Against Money in Politics gathered tens of thousands of signatures in 2024 to put the newly proposed state limits on the ballot. 

In the state’s official election pamphlet, the chairs of the group — former state attorney general Bruce Botelho; Rep. Calvin Schrage, I-Anchorage; dog musher David Monson — state their case, explaining that they view campaign donation limits as “guardrails” on democracy.

“​​Without these guardrails, wealthy individuals and special interests can have an oversized impact and shift a candidate’s focus away from the constituents they are supposed to serve,” they wrote.

Speaking in a public hearing on Monday, Schrage said, “When a single donor can spend hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars on a single candidate, it creates a dangerous environment. It not only grants undue influence to the ultra-wealthy, but it also exposes our elected officials to the risk and perception of quid pro quo corruption.”

In the pamphlet, three Republicans, all former legislators, argue against the initiative.

“Campaign contributions are a form of political speech. To limit someone’s ability to support a candidate is to limit their voice in the democratic process,” said former Rep. Ben Carpenter, R-Nikiski; former Sen. David Wilson, R-Wasilla; and former Rep. Liz Vazquez, R-Anchorage.

In addition, imposing limits on outside donations gives an advantage to candidates who are wealthy enough to pay for their own campaigns, they said.

In Monday’s hearing, another Republican, Amy Demboski, spoke in support of their position.

“Reintroducing new caps creates a pay-to-play barrier where only those who already possess significant name recognition can thrive, effectively silencing the grassroots support necessary for insurgent or unconventional candidates,” she said.

The U.S. Supreme Court has previously ruled that it is unconstitutional to limit the amount of money that a candidate may spend on their own campaign. 

Ballot Measure 1 also does not limit the amount of money that a third-party group can independently spend to support or oppose a candidate. The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision, known as Citizens United, allows unlimited amounts of spending by groups that don’t coordinate directly with candidates.

Also this year, the Supreme Court ruled that political parties may spend unlimited amounts of money in coordination with federal candidates. That decision may affect state races in the future.

Ballot Measure 1 is the consequence of a lengthy and successful legal challenge by a group of Republicans inside and outside the state.

Until 2021, Alaska had some of America’s lowest limits on financial donations to candidates — $500 per candidate, per year. Those were installed by a 2006 ballot measure that passed with the support of 73% of participating voters. 

But a group of Republicans challenged the legality of those limits in 2015, arguing that they unduly restricted free speech. The case was appealed and remanded multiple times before a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the limits in July 2021.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy declined to appeal the issue further, and the limits were removed ahead of Dunleavy’s successful re-election campaign the following year.

In 2022 and 2024, state lawmakers attempted but failed to pass a bill reimposing limits. Legislators this year passed a bill identical to Ballot Measure 1, but Gov. Mike Dunleavy vetoed that bill.

In his veto statement, the governor said the new limits “would radically tilt in the favor of the wealthy when it comes to elected office.”

The lack of limits has had its biggest effect on Alaska’s races for governor. In 2022, all three leading candidates — Dunleavy, independent Bill Walker and Democratic candidate Les Gara — recorded large contributions from individual donors. 

In this year’s race, the two leading Democratic candidates — Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins and Tom Begich — have received large donations from out-of-state contributors. Both Democrats say they support passage of Ballot Measure 1. 

Most of the other 15 candidates in the governor race, including most of the Republicans, have taken similarly large donations, but not to the extent that the leading Democrats have.

The Republican candidate who has raised the most money, podiatrist Matt Heilala, has spent more than $1.25 million on his own campaign. Click Bishop, a Republican who has raised a middling amount of money, is also being boosted by a large union-funded third-party group. Those latter types of spending would not be affected by Ballot Measure 1.

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