Help the AFN Subsistence Committee protect the Sitka Sound Herring egg subsistence harvest by opposing Proposal 161 which is under consideration by the Alaska Board of Fisheries (BOF).
What is Proposal 161?
Proposal 161 would require a subsistence fishing permit to harvest herring roe (herring eggs) on branches in the Sitka Sound area. Currently, herring eggs from Sitka Sound are harvested for traditional and customary purposes each spring and shared with Native communities throughout Alaska. As such, AFN opposes proposal 161.
Protect our Traditional and Customary Practices
Subsistence is the foundation of Alaska Native society. Subsistence resources such as herring eggs from the Sitka Sound area remain central to the nutrition, economies, and traditions of Alaska Native peoples. Those advocating this proposal simply do not understand the nature of this subsistence fishery and the damage that this proposal would inflict on Alaska Native culture. As ADF&G’s 2021 Sitka harvest subsistence study verifies, only 8% of the herring eggs harvested in this subsistence fishery are consumed by the harvester and his/her household; the other 92% are distributed to Alaska Natives throughout the state and indeed nationwide.
Anthropologist Dr. Steven Langdon stressed in his 2021 report that this kind of extensive and institutionalized sharing is the sinew that holds Alaska Native culture together:
As a central value and practice characteristic of all Indigenous Alaskan societies, sharing of subsistence resources was and is a foundation of Indigenous life and livelihood. Sharing is both glue in binding extended families together and lubricant promoting expansion of social ties.
The burden of a permit requirement will endanger the foundational and unifying element of Native culture, and that is sharing traditional resources. It will turn a communal fishery into an individual fishery, with the harvest being linked to the individual. It may also discourage subsistence harvesters from continuing to harvest herring eggs, therefore endangering our Native ways of life. When 92% of the subsistence herring egg harvest is sent to others, being asked to individually bear the entire administrative (and in many cases logistic) burden of a permit program (from application to post-harvest reporting), and solely face the shadow of possible enforcement action, undermines customary and traditional uses, practices, and needs of Alaska Native peoples.
Click HERE to download AFN’s position paper on Proposal 161 for more information.
How to Oppose Proposal 161
Proposal 161 critically undermines the customary and traditional uses, practices, and needs of Alaska Native peoples. As such, the AFN Subsistence Committee strongly opposes proposal 161 and urges AFN members and delegates to do the same.
Please tell the BOF that Proposal 161 creates significant barriers for Alaska Native communities to continue traditional ways of life. The Sitka subsistence harvest is not just a gathering exercise; it is, in and of itself, an important cultural event. Demanding a permit to engage in this cultural tradition is no different from requiring a state permit to hold a potlatch.
You can share your opposition and comments on Proposal 161 with the Alaska Board of Fisheries until February 23, 2022. Comments can be sent to [email protected]. Click HERE for more information on how to submit comments to the BOF.
Thank you, and please contact AFN at [email protected] for more information.
