Health of the Global Fish Stock 8-9

[Isabella Erickson]

When I first heard the question I ranked the health of the global fish stock at about 8 or 9, and when I thought about the second question I realized that my view of this was largely colored by my life in a small fishing village called Chignik Lagoon. My family has commercially fished salmon in this village for generations, and we do not have a very high opinion of how Fish and Game has managed this fishery. For as long as I can remember they have always shot for the low end of their escapement goals; my grandfather noted decades ago that if they continued this the salmon would die out. In 2018 there wasn’t even enough salmon to fish on. This last summer we did not start fishing until a month after when the first opening would normally be, even though there seemed to be as many fish in the lagoon as there was in 2017. I have also noticed that there seems to be less and less halibut and crab for subsistence, and have grown up hearing stories of fish traps, shrimp trawlers, and creek robbing. I believe that my opinion is also based off of what I have heard about coral reefs and an oceans course that talked about how climate change is effecting sea life.

[jlrogers4]

I also grew up on the water and did not notice a change in fish populations and always filled our bag limits. But did notice how the bag limits drastically decreased over a short span of time for shrimp and rockfish.

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