Alaska Board of Game delays consideration of Southwest Alaska game proposals; Board of Fish to consider future meeting schedule changes next week

The Alaska Board of Game met today in Work Session via webconference, the first agenda item in the afternoon was rescheduling of meetings for the 2020/2021 Board of Game meeting cycle. The Board decided to delay all future in-person meetings of the Board for one year, due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns, and to move the entire cycle forward one year. 

The Board of Game was scheduled to meet January 22nd through the 29th 2021 in person in Wasilla to consider game proposals for Central and Southwest Alaska, including game management units (GMU) 9 & 10. That meeting is now postponed for one year, until January 21-28, 2022. The call for proposals will be re-released for public input. The Board of Game will hold a special teleconference meeting March 18th 2021 to address only pressing issues.

Current game proposals in GMUs 9 & 10 of interest to Aleutians East Borough residents: 

• Proposal 25: Review the management findings for Unimak caribou and determine objectives 
• Proposal 26: Determine customary and traditional uses of the Unimak Island caribou herd 
• Proposal 28: Remove the resident bag limit of one brown bear every four years in Unit 9 
• Proposals 33 through 50 propose varying solutions to nonresident harvest of Emperor geese in game management units 9, 10 & 17. 

The current Alaska Board of Game proposal book for the 2020/2021 cycle can be found here. 

The Joint Boards of Fish and Game Committee had met on January 19 to review options for meeting during the COVID-19 pandemic. Committee members agreed that in-person meetings are the real strength of the Board process, but in-person meetings are currently extremely problematic due to COVID-19. 

The Alaska Board of Fisheries is scheduled to consider any changes to their meeting schedule at a special meeting on January 25th at 1pm, to be livestreamed here. 

Board of Fish currently scheduled meetings that may be impacted: 

• Statewide All Shellfish March 5-10, 2021 
• Prince William Sound Finfish and Shellfish March 30-April 5, 2021 
• Southeast and Yakutat Finfish & Shellfish April 17-29, 2021 
• Alaska Peninsula, AI,BS & Chignik Pacific Cod October 22-23 , 2021 
• Bristol Bay Finfish November 28-December 4, 2021 
• Arctic / Yukon / Kuskokwim Finfish January 8-12, 2022 
• Alaska Peninsula/Aleutian Island/Chignik Finfish February 18-23, 2022 
• Statewide Finfish and Supplemental Issues March 11-14, 2022