Forum examines ‘sport fish services sector’ in Southeast Alaska
- Daily Sitka Sentinel
- Sep 17
- 5 min read
By Anna Laffrey
Daily Sitka Sentinel
A long road may lie ahead for Southeast Alaskans seeking changes to the way guided sport fishing operators and businesses who offer unguided “bare boat” charters register to do business in this region.
That was the takeaway from a three-hour forum with state leaders at Harrigan Centennial Hall on Monday regarding the idea of forming a task force to study whether new rules are are needed for the region’s "sport fish services" sector.
An audience of 100 attended the event in person, and about 30 more joined remotely.
State Rep. Rebecca Himschoot opened the event by presenting the House resolution (HCR1) that she introduced in January, which would establish the nine-member joint task force of lawmakers, fishery representatives and other appointees to consider entry practices for members of the sport services sector, and make recommendations.
At present, there is no limit on the number of guides who can register to conduct sport fishing business in Alaska each year, and there is no fee for those who register.
Himschoot's resolution states that roughly half of the sport fishing service providers in Alaska operate in Southeast Alaska waters.
The Sitka legislator said that her resolution doesn't have a goal of any particular change to any particular statute.
“My bill is looking to bring people together and have industry people – you guys know this stuff way better than I do – try to figure out ‘Do we need to do something differently, and if so, what is that?’” Himschoot said.
She hopes her resolution will earn approval this upcoming legislative session, and that task force meetings will begin in the fall of 2026 to help the industry “move on and start dealing with some of the other really frightening things that are coming our way. "
“I’m very concerned about the health of our ocean right now, and I think that’s the tidal wave that’s going to overrun us while we’re still in a tailspin on this issue,” Himschoot said at the close of Monday’s forum.
Tom Ohaus, the co-owner of Angling Unlimited in Sitka and board president for the Southeast Alaska Guides Organization, told the Sentinel today that the forum was a good step toward what could be a long process.
For a meeting concerning fishermen’s livelihoods, it was a calm and quiet one, because “there wasn’t anything for anybody to get hot and bothered about,” Ohaus said.
“There’s not much there that’s controversial, it’s just a wide open hook of what might work,” he said.
Everybody in the guided sport fishing sector has been asking for a change, he said.
“I think that’s because these are fully allocated resources,” Ohaus said of the fish species that anglers target in Southeast. “With fully allocated resources you have to take a look at everybody who’s participating. … The message for years from every sector is that nobody can grow infinitely without management.”
None of the panelists on Monday addressed specific issues or concerns with the charter fishing sector. Rather, they provided context for the work that task force members would do.
Dani Evenson, who leads the extended jurisdiction program for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, described the web of state, federal, and international rules that govern chinook salmon harvest in Southeast, which she said "is the most complex salmon management fishery in the state of Alaska.”
Evenson discussed how the U.S.-Canada Pacific Salmon Treaty’s “chinook model” this year calculated the lowest-ever measure of chinook abundance for the region, which affected a tight all-gear catch limit of 133,500 chinook for Southeast, and eventually triggered a mid-season chinook retention closure for nonresidents.
Alaska leaders are now working with Canada in renegotiating the next treaty agreement, which will take effect in 2029.
“One of the priorities is developing a new model, perhaps a more reliable model, to set our catch limits,” Evenson said. The top priority, she added, is “more fish to Alaska,” followed by greater management flexibility.
Next, Himschoot discussed a 12-page legislative report that staff prepared last year, which reviews 17 attempts since 1992 to change policies for guided sport fishing operators.
The legislative record illustrates how contentious fishery regulation has been in Alaska, involving competition among user groups, varying priorities, constitutional questions, and overlapping state, federal, and international policies. A copy of the report is available by contacting Himschoot’s office at tava.guillory@akleg.gov.
Glenn Haight, who heads the state Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission, discussed the limited entry permit system for commercial fisheries, which the Alaska Legislature enacted in 1973 to conserve fish stocks and provide economic stability for fishermen.
Haight said that, as policy leaders mull changes to entry practices for the sport fish services sector, a task force is the right way to go.
“This is not something you can take care of in a committee hearing, or committee hearings in a legislative session,” Haight said. “This is really complicated nuts and bolts stuff.”
He said significant resources and organizational capacity would be needed to design new rules for sport fishing service providers. Issues could include how to define fishery areas, whether permits could be transferred, and how new rules would withstand lawsuits.
“Litigation has been front and center in CFEC’s history, and it will be in this case, too,” Haight said. “This law, if it ever passes, will get sued heavily.”
Rachel Donkersloot, a PhD social scientist, attended the meeting via Zoom and discussed the unintended consequences that the limited entry policy for commercial fisheries had on Alaska communities.
Donkersloot, of the Aniak, Alaska-based organization Coastal Cultures Research, explained that, in general, programs that limit access to fisheries enact exclusion, entrench inequities, shift core values and disempower young fishermen.
Since limited entry for commercial fisheries came into place, communities in Southeast have lost an average of 38% of their locally-owned permits, largely through sales and transfers, she said. Angoon has lost 91% of its permits since 1975, Donkersloot said.
Finally, SEAGO's asssistant director, Kim Landeen, presented state data showing that, throughout Southeast, operation of guided sport fishing boats in Southeast actually declined from 2006 to 2023.
Seven hundred and forty-seven guided vessels operated in Southeast salt waters in 2006, while 615 operated in the region in 2023, Landeen said. Meanwhile, 439 charter fishing businesses operated in 2006, while 290 businesses operated in the region’s salt water in 2023.
Landeen said she’s witnessed growth in the unguided sector, although participation data aren't available from the state.
“We’re seeing significant growth happening in Pelican currently, as well as some pretty significant unguided operations happening in Elfin Cove, and that’s my neck of the woods (around Gustavus),” Landeen said. “I can’t speak for everybody, but we are hearing reports of significant growth from around the region.”
Ohaus said that, anecdotally, he doesn’t see much growth in the guided sport fishing business out of Sitka over the past 20 years.
“I don’t feel like it’s more crowded out there or there’s more charter boats,” he said.
Ohaus said he’s glad that the legislative task force would also look at the unguided rental business that creates the “potential for leakage” of participation from the guided sport sector.
“There’s incentive for people to do bare boat charters where people are still harvesting, sport fishing, but are not constrained by the charter halibut permit, or regulations for guided anglers,” Ohaus said. “With a task force, it’s better to try to get our arms around the whole thing.”
• This article originally appeared in the Daily Sitka Sentinel.
