Our Work
Subsistence Mapping
This
report shows extensive areas where Alaska Native hunters and local
fishermen harvest ocean resources, and the marine waters important to
the resources we rely on. The report can support our leaders and inform
outside decision makers about how we depend on the ocean and how our
life is inseparable from it.
©Bering Sea Elders Group. The contents of this report may not be reproduced without written permission from the Bering Sea Elders Group.
Working with CDQ Groups and the Fishing Industry
The fishing companies involved in the Alaska Seafood Cooperative operate a bottom trawl fishery for yellowfin sole in the nearshore waters around Kuskokwim Bay, Etolin Strait and Nunivak Island. The Elders Group, AVCP and the Alaska Seafood Cooperative are engaged in a formal negotiation to resolve the need to protect subsistence and local small-scale fisheries with the interests of the bottom trawl fleet to operate in these waters. They appointed a liaison to help keep our communications flowing back and forth and we have been meeting regularly to seek an agreeable solution. The Elders Group is represented by Native American Rights Fund and Trustees for Alaska in these negotiations. AVCP is a party at the table with the Elders Group.
Timeline
2008-2011 – Subsistence mapping project. "The Northern Bering Sea: Our Way of Life" was published in the Fall 2011.
February 2010 - Northern Bering Sea Research Area (NBSRA) community and subsistence workshop - Anchorage, AK. (Read the report.)
January 17, 2011 - NBSRA workshop at Alaska Marine Science Symposium - Anchorage, AK.
January 26-28, 2011 - Bering Sea Elders Group, Nome Summit
June 2011 - North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting - Nome, AK. (Reviewed bottom trawl boundary along Nunivak Island, Etolin Strait and Kuskokwim Bay)
December 2011, March 2012 – Bottom trawl fleet and Bering Sea Elders Group reported to North Pacific Fishery Management Council on the status of our discussion regarding concerns about nearshore bottom trawling in our subsistence use areas between Kuskokwim Bay and Nunivak Island.
May 2012 - Two-day session with Alaska Seafood Coop, Elders Group and AVCP to seek agreement on a way to protect subsistence and local small-scale fisheries.
October 2012 - Final report to North Pacific Fishery Management Council from Alaska Seafood Coop, Elders Group and AVCP on the conclusion of our negotiation. Also, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council will discuss future research in the Northern Bering Sea Research Area.
RESOLUTIONS
Click here to see the Resolution Expressing a Vision for the Northern Bering Sea
Click here to see the Resolution on the Magnuson-Stevens Act
Strategic Plan
At the Summit in November 2011, the Elders Group developed a strategic plan to guide the organization's work over the next five years. The final plan was approved by the Executive Committee in January 2012.
