August 27, 2009

Fishing with no bait in Alaska

By Fannie Bates

How would you like to be told that you could go fishing, but you couldn’t use bait? What if you were an Eskimo or other Native American whose family is depending on fish to get through the winter?

Last night, I was listening to a radio station coming from Nome, Alaska, when I heard a report from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. It stated that people who are doing subsistence fishing for salmon are not allowed to use a net. They are only allowed to use a hook without bait.

It went on to warn “elders” (senior citizens) that just because they have a complimentary fishing license doesn’t give them the right to use bait.

The vast majority of people fishing around here are Eskimos and Native American Indians who depend on fish to provide at least half of their protein intake for the winter.

The other half of their protein comes from moose meat. The government makes it equally hard to get moose meat. The way I understand it, each family is allowed to kill one moose during hunting season. If that one moose isn’t enough to get your family through the winter, you can apply for a second permit, but it costs money to get the second permit. My friend applied last year, and it took two months to get the permit. By then, the moose season was almost over. He had to take off from work to go moose hunting for the last week of the season, with no guarantee that he would actually get a moose.

The Eskimos and other Native Americans are being told that they can’t catch any fish to sell here on the Yukon River, while the Japanese are taking all they want out of the Bering Sea, a few miles away.

There used to be jobs for everyone, working in the fish canneries in the summer. But the fish canneries have been put out of business by government regulations and Japanese poachers.

I have acquaintances who are middle-aged Eskimo men and women who have made a living for 20 – 30 years by catching fish from the river and selling them. Now, they will go to jail if they do this. How are they supposed to feed their families if there are no jobs and the government won’t let them fish and hunt?

People say, “Oh, but they get a check from the government every year. Don’t kid yourself. That check is not enough to pay a winter’s heating bill.

Written by Fannie Bates, MPH
Alakanuk, Alaska

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