Alaska, Canada contemplating change to 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty [Video]

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTVF) – Alaska and Canada are considering an addition to their 1985 Pacific Salmon Treaty that would put a seven-year moratorium on Yukon River Chinook salmon fishing, with few exceptions.

The proposed terms would snap the practice of year-by-year closure announcements, instead extending the shutdown to match the species’ target life cycle length.

Fall chum salmon, another border-crossing fish, could also have been looped into the proposal, but they are currently left out.

“We decided to focus this, initially, on Chinook. Chinook is the thing that’s been in the long-term decline, and it’s time to do it,” Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang said Tuesday at a presentation at Pike’s Waterfront Lodge.

Eva Burke, who’s on the ADF&G Minto-Nenana Advisory Committee, thought the addition to the treaty didn’t go far enough.

“We’ve already been not fishing on Chinook,” she said at the meeting. “I …