Fishing Woes Taking A Toll In Chignik Bay

Devastating story from Alaska Public Media about the Chignik Bay fishing community’s struggles within its industry since the sockeye fishery collapsed almost four years ago. Here’s more:

Three and a half years later, Chignik fishermen are finally expecting federal relief funds to start coming in, making up for some of their lost income. But that assistance may be too late to keep those fishermen coming back to Chignik, or to help make the local economies whole again.

“It is a kind of a small BandAid on a bigger wound that was opened four years ago,” said George Anderson, the president of the Chignik Intertribal Coalition who has fished commercially his entire life. “For a lot of people, they’ve moved on to other fisheries, had to invest, move into tendering — you know, does a check four years later really recuperate your losses? For everybody, it’s going to be different.” …

…Months later, the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission is now getting ready to distribute some of the $10.3 million in disaster funds to Chignik fishermen in the coming weeks. The rest will go to processors, communities and research.

Here’s hoping things get better for the folks on the Alaska Peninsula.