Open letter to Governor Sarah Palin regarding the recent North Pacific Management Council Events

By Nicholas C. Tucker, Sr.

Please understand that this letter both a fact finding request and expectation of solid, honest answers. I would like it noted that we, in the 12 Northwest Arctic villages, 42 Interior villages, and the 57 Yukon-Kuskokwim villages deserve straightforward explanation to our Alaska's motions and actions during the last North Pacific Fishery Management Council(NPFMC) meetings held in Anchorage.

First and foremost, our ADF&G Commissioner is appointed as our "executive officer who is responsible for protection, management, conservation and restoration of our Alaska's fish and game resources." He is our esteemed representative at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. Would you please explain if he duly performed his duties to the utmost at their meeting to fully represent and protect our villages' Chinook salmon in full compliance with the Constitution of the State of Alaska, Article 8, and the Sustainable Salmon Fisheries Policy as adopted by the Alaska State Board of Fisheries and Alaska Department of Fish and Game. As Alaskan-Citizen users, were we given every consideration as provided for by our Constitution and this Policy?

From what I can gather, studies and reports clearly and distinctly reveal a bycatch of our Chinook salmon in the Bering Sea Aleutian Islands(BSAI) Pollock fishery(s). Why then would our State have chosen to be the first to make a motion to cap the bycatch at 68,000 of our Western, Northwestern and Yukon-bound Chinook salmon? The Commissioner is more than knowledgeable about our 15-year plus rebuilding and restoration efforts on the entire Yukon River drainage - in all instances with great sacrifices.

Without repeating the plight of our 111 Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim villages due to heating fuel and food crises, especially when our ever-constrained subsistence and commercial fishing are largely the major components leading to this current sad state of affairs, I thank you for acknowledging the plight of all affected villages by going to Marshall and Russian Mission. Our boards at the Maniilaq Association (Northwest), the Association of Village Council Presidents (Yukon-Kuskokwim), and the Tanana Chiefs Conference(Interior) need to reassure us that our State's position and actions at these NPFMC meetings are not, in any way, going to affect our stocks of concern, subsistence way of life, and commercial fisheries that are so intertwined with our 8,000 - 15,000 history. Would you and our ADF&G Commissioner mind doing this by arranging meetings with the each of the Boards and executives of the aforementioned representatives? We would like our presidents come back to us and assure us that everything is going to be okay; that, like many, I can confidently say to my 19 grandchildren the Preamble of our State Constitution and Article 1 are so worded for their esteemed citizenry and future; that justice is guaranteed.

If not, how about reversing Alaska's stand and go straight to the Secretary of U.S. Commerce to implement the resounding and overwhelming testimonies from these regions to cap the BSAI Chinook salmon bycatch between 29,000-32,000. We all know that the Pollock industry survived and remained lucrative with average harvest of about 32,000 Chinook salmon between 1991-2001, the most recent average accounting for current operating expenses and such. Beginning 2004, the bycatch rose dramatically. I wondered why would one on the Council suggest to fly the by-caught Chinooks all the way from the Aleutians chain to the Yukon for our "subsistence" use. Please dig out my answer to that from the testimonial records on the morning of April 5, 2009.

I think we all have no doubts and believe that the economies and resources of our great State belong to and are to first benefit our citizens. Or am I wrong? Would bowing down to the giant, billion-dollar BSAI Pollock industry, whose main harvesters are from outside our State, accomplish this? Then, who would we be?

In Respect and in anticipation,

Nicholas C. Tucker, Sr.,

Emmonak