Salamatof Native Association board member Jon Ross has been fishing all of his life.
He got started at just 10 years old spending his summers with his grandfather, watching family hang and smoke salmon. That was when Ross and two of his cousins wanted to get in on the action.
“I found some some web, and I found some cork line and some corks. The three of us built our own net, and at 10 years old, all on our own, and we went down to the beach and we set that out, and we caught fish and brought them up to grandpa,” Ross said.
That led to a career in commercial fishing – and now – ocean conservation. Ross spoke to a small audience at the Kenai Chamber of Commerce on June 25 as part of its Kenai Chronicles talk series. The talk coincided with the chamber’s history exhibit about fishing on the Kenai Peninsula.
Ross was largely concerned about declining king salmon runs. In the conversation, he speculated dwindling numbers could be attributed to trolling bycatch or overharvesting.
He says the Salamatof Tribe once applied for a grant to potentially develop a king salmon hatchery. The Tribe didn’t get the funds, but Ross says they need that kind of effort to restore the population.
“I don't believe that there's been a concerted effort coordinated with a plan of how to increase king salmon," Ross said. "And I think that's desperately needed.”
Ross says some fishing regulations need to change, and that means statewide collaboration. He believes that state agencies, like the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, should work more closely with tribal agencies.
“There can be co-management," Ross said. "There could be our own management of our own fisheries.”
But Ross says increasing king salmon runs on the Kenai Peninsula should involve more than just working alongside other managers, like the state. He says showing up to fishing advisory meetings and making Indigenous voices heard are important.
“We want to be doing the environmental studies, we want to be on the leading edge with what can be done to bring back king salmon," Ross said. "And so, we need to unite, both locally, but we need the whole community to work on this together.”
Ross also talked about pollution, overharvesting and warming waters. He says the Kenai River and other popular fishing locations should be open to everyone, but a balance between sport fishing and subsistence lifestyles should be considered.
