Amid legal questions, Board bans subsistence spearfishing at Sitka’s Redoubt Lake Falls

Amid legal questions, Board bans subsistence spearfishing at Sitka’s Redoubt Lake Falls

By Robert Woolsey

Source: KCAW

3/31/2022

Credit: KCAW photo/Rebecca Danon

A subsistence fishing method that has become more popular with sockeye harvesters in Sitka in recent years is now banned.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries last week (3-22-22) prohibited the use of spear guns in the Redoubt Lake management area.

Proponents of the ban argued that spearfishing was inefficient, dangerous, and disruptive to schooling sockeye – and likely illegal in any case.

The Redoubt Lake Falls are about a 15-mile skiff ride from Sitka. The Forest Service fertilizes the lake every year, and the sockeye run there typically produces large numbers of fish that are a bit bigger than their cousins at Necker Bay and Klag Bay – both of which are farther away and more challenging to reach.

Dipnetting in the falls, and snagging in the bay, are the most common techniques for subsistence harvesters, but over the past few years more people have been putting on wetsuits and snorkels, and fishing at the base of the falls with spear guns.