Reply to comment

Ok fellow dipnetters, here is exactly the reason why the Chitina Dipnetters Association (CDA) has so strongly argued for subsistence designation for the Chitina dipnet fishery. On Dec. 29, 2008, Herbert Jensen, a commercial drift gillnet and purse seine fisherman from Cordova, filed suit in federal district court to eliminate all personal use fisheries in Alaska, especially the personal use dipnet fishery at Chitina. He argues that under the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation and Management Act, the State of Alaska is prohibited from establishing salmon fisheries for its residents only, that residents from all states of the United States must be able to partake in the fishery. For this reason, he asks the court to nullify all personal use fisheries in the state. He further declares that the annual harvest by Chitina dipnetters of some 100,000 sockeye salmon has harmed the commercial drift gillnet fishery by depriving them of the extra $1,000,000 these fish would have sold for.

For you dipnetters who have not heard, the CDA and the Alaska Outdoor Council have filed suit to return the dipnet fishery at Chitina to subsistence status. Subsistence classification will give us priority over the commercial salmon fishery at the mouth of the Copper River and end nonsense like this. It's time for everyone who depends on dipnetting to supply fish for their table for the winter, to dig into your wallet or purse and donate to the CDA legal fund and return the Chitina dipnet fishery to subsistence.