Federal subsistence advisory panel meets in Nome
The Seward Peninsula Subsistence Regional Advisory Council met in Nome at the Mini Convention Center last week. Over the course of the two-day meeting, the council considered a few new proposals, including two that would limit the caribou harvest on federal lands in the region and another that would allow subsistence users to sell brown bear hides.
The council meets twice a year to develop proposals to change federal subsistence regulations, review proposals submitted by other regions, and voice concerns about any subsistence issues that arise in their communities. The recommendations and feedback from 10 different councils across Alaska go to the Federal Subsistence Board, which oversees the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Federal Subsistence Management Program. That board meets to act on proposals for wildlife subsistence regulations during even-numbered years, and fisheries subsistence regulations in off-numbered years.
The advisory council in Nome had a quorum with five members present in the room: Deahl Katchatag of Unalakleet, Ronald Kirk of Stebbins, Raymond Hunt of Shaktoolik, Elmer Seetot Jr. of Brevig Mission and Robert Moses Sr. of Golovin. With Chair Louis Green Jr. and Vice Chair Tom Gray both absent, Seetot was acting chair for the meeting.
Caribou
When the council last met in the spring, they had supported a special action designed to help conserve the Western Arctic Caribou Herd. This measure would have changed the federal harvest limit of caribou in game unit 23 from five caribou per hunter per day to just four caribou, only one of which could be a cow, per year per hunter. But the Federal Subsistence Board rejected this measure in June, saying that an immediate action could be detrimental to subsistence needs and that it wanted the proposal to go through the normal regulatory process.
“This is your chance to do that,” said Hannah Voorhees, an anthropologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Subsistence Management, presenting the proposal to the council. “The proponents are greatly concerned about the precipitous decline of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd and feel that action is needed to slow this decline.”
The regular proposal now up for consideration would not only apply to unit 23, but to all of the units that cover the range of the herd: 21D remainder, 24B remainder, 24C, 24D, 22 and 26A.
The population of the Western Arctic Caribou Herd, the largest in Alaska, is now about a third of what it was 20 years ago, when its size was estimated at 475,000 animals.
Alex Hansen, a wildlife biologist with the Kotzebue office of Alaska Department of Fish and Game, told the council that the current population is estimated to be around 152,000, down from last year’s census count of 164,000. Birth rates seem to be up from last year, with about 77 calves per 100 cows spotted this summer. The number of yearlings is about the same as it has been in the last five years, with about 17 yearlings per 100 adults observed this spring. Hansen noted that ADF&G was in support of the proposal from the Kotzebue Sound Fish and Game Advisory committee designed to reduce cow harvest, saying that it serves as a good means to potentially address the conservation of the herd. He emphasized that one of the only things subsistence users can do to help rebuild the herd is to allow as many cows as possible to live and reproduce.
Council member Moses noted that the herd has not been a regular presence in the Norton Sound area for years. He also pointed to research from ADF&G that showed caribou had a hard time crossing the road to the Red Dog Mine in the Kotzebue area and may have affected their migration patterns.
Even though hunters in unit 22 generally are not currently taking as much caribou as hunters in unit 23 farther north, Hansen explained why it might be important for all the units of the herd’s range to adopt new restrictions.
In a subsequent email to the Nugget he said that caribou can be very fickle. “They surprised me this year when so many started marching down the Noatak towards Kotzebue. History has shown us that harvest is tied to availability rather than population size, so when we have tens of thousands of caribou near multiple communities and the bulls are stink, cow harvest will likely be elevated. When these events take place, we have the opportunity to lose a lot of cows in a hurry. And when that happens, we can see thousands of cows that don’t have calves next year.”
The council voted to defer action on the caribou proposal until March, when the councils from all regions will meet in Anchorage.
The council considered another proposal to close federal public lands in unit 23 to caribou hunting by nonfederally qualified users from Aug. 1 through Oct. 31. “Non-federally qualified users” is a category that could include non-rural residents as well as some rural residents who don’t live close by to the resource or haven’t demonstrated that they depend on the resource. This action was requested by the councils representing the Northwest Arctic and North Slope regions.
Voorhees noted that non-federally qualified users would still be able to access and harvest caribou on gravel bars below the mean high watermark within federal public lands, as these are considered part of state land. She said the Office of Subsistence Management, or OSM, was in favor of the proposal but submitted its own modification. If this closure goes into place, OSM would like it to be removed once the Western Arctic Caribou Herd Working Group votes to manage the herd at a conservative management and harvest level, with a stable or increasing population trend.
The council voted in favor of the proposal with this modification.
Musk oxen
The council reviewed seven closures that are currently in place to limit musk ox hunting on federal lands to local subsistence users. For example, under one of the closures, only residents of Nome and Teller are currently eligible to hunt musk oxen on federally managed land in Unit 22D Southwest. In each case, the council voted to support the status quo of these closures, as recommended by the Office of Subsistence Management.
The council also supported a proposal that was essentially a housekeeping change to update language about the distribution of federal musk ox hunt permit in units 22 and 23. Federal managers in these units have been distributing permits with a drawing system since around 1998, and the language needed to be changed to reflect that.
Most musk oxen that are hunted on the Seward Peninsula are taken on state land by state permit holders.
Last year, a total of 17 federal permits were issued and nine musk oxen were harvested in units 22 and 23. As the state harvest across the Seward Peninsula was 25 musk oxen, those nine made up about a quarter of the total harvest. The percentage of federally hunted musk oxen has usually been smaller, accounting for an average of just 10 percent since 2012.
According to ADF&G’s most recent estimate, from a 2021 survey, there are about 2,071 musk oxen in the Seward Peninsula. This is down from a peak of 2,903 in 2010.
Brown bears
The council also passed a proposal to allow the sale of brown bear hides by federally qualified subsistence users, as long as the edible meat is salvaged for human consumption.
The proposal was submitted by an individual in McCarthy.
OSM added their own adjustment, which the Seward Peninsula council
supported: that hides could only be sold from bears that were harvested in an area with a two brown bear limit per regulatory year.
Moose
The state management goals for moose are to maintain a population of 5,100 to 6,800 moose across the
Seward Peninsula. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, hunters faced new restrictions on moose hunts in the region as the animals’ population declined. Hunting seasons were shortened, harvest limits were reduced and land closures were enacted.
While ADF&G has said that
moose numbers are recovering, the state is still recommending that federal public land in 22D remainder be kept closed to anyone who is not a federally qualified subsistence user.
The council reviewed this closure and voted to maintain it.