Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation flies citizens out to freshwater fishing grounds amid salmon harvest ban

Amid a ban on chinook salmon fishing in the Yukon River, one First Nation has turned to float planes for help.

The Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation is paying to charter float planes for a few days this summer soit can fly families into fishing spots where they can harvest freshwater fish instead of salmon.

Citizens have traditionally fished chinook salmon from the Porcupine River, which is a tributary of the Yukon River. But in hopes of rebuilding a dwindling fish population, the Yukon and Alaska have agreed not to fish chinook from the Yukon River for seven years.

CBC North's Leonard Linklater spoke to Jeremy Brammer, the fish and wildlife manager for the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, about the project to fly community members out for fishing.

Midday Cafe6:19Yukon First Nation turns to floatplane for fishing

Salmon fishing ban means Vuntut Gwitchin will use floatplane to ferry citizens to fishing areas.

What's happening in the community with regards to fishing?

We're trying to adapt to the difficult situation of a drastically reduced chinook run. In the Porcupine River valley, in the watershed on all tributaries, the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation has adopted a resolution to not put in gill nets for a period this summer to allow chinook to pass and to not be intercepted, even by fishers who may be trying to target freshwater species.

This is a major sacrifice to forego that freshwater fish that would normally be coming in at this time of the year to support families and to to feed dogs and dog teams.

Why is the nation flying people out in planes?

The First Nation is trying to support fishers now by assisting them in getting to places where they can put nets in and have no chance of intercepting migratory chinook. The nation is fortunate to have many lakes across the traditional territory that are great for fishing. And so a float plane can be an indispensable tool to get fishers out to these lakes so they can continue to fish.

It sounds expensive, is it?

In the past, often families would charter their own planes to get into harvesting areas.

But if we as the First Nation co-ordinate a plane, we can attempt to get an economy of scale where we're getting a lot of families into their harvesting areas on one plane, while it's in the community, over a short period of time.

Why is it important to get citizens to these fishing spots?

A lot of these areas are important traditional family areas and they're only accessible at certain times of the year. In the summertime when water levels are low, it's difficult to get to these lakes. These lakes are usually further up river and if the water levels are low, you may not be able to operate your boat all the way up to where the lakes are and then hike into them.

So with the float plane we can get families out to areas where they wouldn't be able to get to at this time of the year. And then there's also areas that are not being fished nearly as consistently as on the Porcupine and the Old Crow River, where there are a lot of freshwater fish.

Are you concerned that if you don't do something like this, people may put nets in for salmon in the rivers, against the agreements?

I think we want to avoid backing people, families, into a corner. We want to try to support them to have alternatives. The question between feeding yourself or not, of course that's a difficult position to put somebody in. We don't want anybody to be living those types of choices.

Instead, we want to be giving an option for citizens to go places where they can fish to feed their family and support their communities while recognizing that we're in this historic low chinook run and we don't want to be impacting migratory chinook. We're trying to make the best of what is a difficult situation.

How long will the program run?

This summer is a pilot program. We're looking at a closure for chinook [to last] for seven years. So we are likely to be in a similar situation again and again in the coming summers.

The idea right now is we have a pilot program, we will have the plane up in community for two days to take folks out to their fishing areas and then two days next week to bring folks home. And we'll see what type of participation we get and what type of feedback we get from community members.

From there we'll look at planning the next float planes. We're going to see what lessons we learn and then we'll build the program from there.

Are community members showing interest?

Yes, we're definitely getting interest from citizens. The First Nation is going to be running its own fish camp as well for those who don't want to strike out on their own. I imagine, as we get closer to the date of the float plane arriving and right when the float plane lands even, we might have some people coming up and expressing an interest to get out to other areas.

I'm optimistic. Who knows, maybe we'll need to have a float plane that's in the community longer to accommodate the growth of interest over time.