The Sitka Fish and Game Advisory Committee is recommending the Alaska Board of Fisheries close Promisla Bay to commercial herring fishing, reversing its previous vote on the proposal. 

Proposal 179 was submitted by Steve Johnson, with the intent to protect an area that has become increasingly important to the subsistence harvest of herring eggs on branches, a traditional food for the Lingít people.

The proposal was first reviewed by the AC in November. At the time, the committee was evenly divided, then in December it rescinded its vote in order to revisit the proposal. At a meeting in early January, (1-8-25) it reconsidered the proposal with some new information. 

Lauren Sill is a subsistence program manager for ADF&G. She said data collected from traditional harvesters showed Promisla Bay in recent years is making up a bigger share of the subsistence harvest. 

“Prior to, I don’t know, maybe 2016, 2017 somewhere around there, a lot of the harvest was not documented up in this northern portion of Sitka Sound, but it’s become more common over the last few years,” Sill said. “I think we’ve documented more harvesters going to that area probably partly because of where…herring were spawning.” Sill added that in 2017 and 2018 herring weren’t spawning in the traditional core areas, with more spawn focused in the northern area of the Sound.

Over two dozen members of the public joined the meeting to voice support for the proposal, including traditional harvesters from Sitka and surrounding communities. Joel Jackson is the president of the Organized Village of Kake- he said Kake relies on Sitka’s subsistence harvest to supply herring eggs for tribal citizens.

“We used to get our own spawn here years ago, until the state opened up the. I think what it was called was the ‘Winter Herring Bait Fisheries,’ and they did that pretty much all over Southeast, and it completely almost wiped out our herring in our area,” Jackson said. “It really, it really, it really hurt us, and we had to start depending on another like Sitka and Prince of Wales to get our herring eggs. So, you know, it’s a very important subsistence food to our people.”

One commercial fisherman said he opposed the proposal, and some members of the AC voiced frustration with the process of revisiting the issue after it had already been voted on. Ultimately the AC voted 10-4 in support of the proposal.

The Sitka AC has spent months reviewing fishery proposals and preparing its recommendations for the policy makers– the Alaska Board of Fisheries. AC support can give a proposal more weight but it doesn’t guarantee the board will give a proposal the greenlight. The Board of Fish meets in Ketchikan later this month.