On Tuesday representatives from coastal communities from Chevak to Platinum gathered in Bethel to vote on subsistence and hunting proposals affecting Unit 18. The Central Bering Sea Fish and Game Advisory Committee passed five game proposals, shot down three others, and will vote on fisheries proposals Wednesday.
Of the game proposals passed Tuesday, the one that took the longest deliberation had to do with defining what should be the legal definition of a bird’s edible meat, or the minimum legal requirement of meat a hunter has to salvage from a bird. The committee’s decision: all the meat, except the intestines and lungs.
Annie Cleveland, Quinhagak representative, explains why:
“That’s because I ate all the meat on the bird. If you leave off the legs or the wings, and you trash that, that’s waste," Cleveland said. "To me that’s waste.”
Many of the representatives said that they were raised to salvage the whole bird, eating every part from the eyeballs to the tongue, and to leave only the intestines on the tundra. Right now, hunters are only required to take the breast, legs, and thighs of large birds like swan, geese, and cranes, and just the breasts of smaller birds like ducks and ptarmigan. The committee members want all of the meat, no matter the size of the bird, to go home with the hunter.
Other proposed recommendations that passed supported a winter moose hunt in the Goodnews River Drainage and a reauthorized antlerless moose hunting seasons in the Unit 18 Remainder. That’s the area which includes the Yukon River from the old village of Paimiut and all communities north and west of Kwigillingok and Kongiganak. Another proposal that passed supported banning nonresident hunting for prey species in the Arctic/Western region if prey populations ever dropped to the point where predator control or other intensive management was required.
Failed proposals would have supported allowing hunters to harvest brown bears at bait stations, opening a nonresident draw hunt for caribou in both Units 18 and 19, and allowing nonresidents in Unit 18 to take non-antlered moose during the winter.
On Wednesday, the committee is discussing fisheries proposals. The major one could support limiting which Kuskokwim residents can fish for king salmon by requiring residents to apply for a limited number of Chinook fishing permits.
The meeting begins at 9 a.m. at the Bethel Fish and Game office. All the proposals will be sent to the Alaska Board of Game and the Alaska Board of Fisheries for final decision in January.
