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"----our perception
is that if you do not operate around the real laws of the universe, you are challenging fundamental cycles that you depend
on for life."
November 28,2011
There are, have been, and will be, issues that state and local people are deeply concerned with that I have
been ignoring in my commentaries. Admittedly, I have been concentrating mostly on universal concepts, but
the themes have been consistent with my effort to keep focused on the Laws of Nature. I will stay concentrated
on this theme even though I will now begin addressing state and local issues. Here is one of the first of many.
Sea Otters a Menace to Subsistence Resources
I presently serve as Chairman’s of the Southeast Regional Subsistence Advisory Council (RAC) and the Wrangell/St Elias
Subsistence Resource Commission (SRC). These are federal organizations created by the Alaska National Interests Lands and
Conservation Act (ANILCA) in 1980 to address subsistence regulations on federal lands. The Regional Advisory Council’s
deal with regulations in wilderness areas and Subsistence Resource Commission’s work on issues in National Parks and
Preserves in Alaska. Each entity has two meetings each a year, RAC’s in a community in southeast
and SRC’s in a village in the Wrangell /St Elias region. One of the problems we have been discussing in our RAC for
several years are sea otters. Years ago Richard Dalton, an elder from Hoonah, visited family and friends in Yakutat.
At a public meeting the subject of sea otters became the center of discussion. The population explosion
of these critters had been increasing in the Yakutat area. Mr. Dalton shared his concern that
sea otters were beginning to invade Glacier Bay as well. According to Mr. Dalton, sea otters had no real presence in Glacier
Bay. An interesting reality he shared was that long before human invaders
came to Alaska our people kept these animals concentrated in the Fairweather Bench. To get an idea of how
far this is from the gulf coastline he said, “When they paddled their canoes to their hunting grounds,
they went so far out that they could see only the top of Tsalxaan (Mount Fairweather at 15,300 feet) and Waaseitisha (Mount
Saint Elias at 18008 feet). We knew if we let them come to the mainland they would eat all the foods we
gather from the sea. When the Russians came to Yakutat, it was the
abundance of sea otters that kept them here,” Dalton reminded us. “And it didn’t take long for the invaders
to hunt them to extinction.” This
coincides with a story I had heard about how the village of Guseix nearly became extinct by a strong earthquake in Lituya
Bay about two hundred years past. Hunters had been resting in Lituya Bay when a mammoth earthquake caused
a monster of a wave in the bay. It was said that the side of the mountain at the head of the bay had opened
like a giant clam and gushed out water that rushed through the bay. The wave washed eight canoes over the
spit into the ocean. About 180 young men perished, which was about half of Guseix. However the pelts that
had been stored in halibut stomach bags floated on top of the water. These were found when La Perouse was in the vicinity.
Here, they had found something more than a gold mine. In a short time, with the Russians help, they had hunted the animals
until there were no more. In 1968 sea otters were transplanted
from the Aleutians, where they were in still in abundance, to the Yakutat Area. Instead of taking them to the Fairweather
grounds they placed them in the islands and mainland. In this new kind of habitat these animals prospered---prospered too
effectively in fact.
Sea otters have a unique custom; unlike other animals, but like humans, they have a habit
of breeding year around. It didn’t take long for them to invade our subsistence environment such as the fertile crab
habitat, clam and cockle beds, sea urchins, etc.; these are choice foods that our people thrived on for thousands of years. The fact that they breed year around one could imagine
the short time it would take to overtake a region. If one wanted to use the popular
term that “they breed like rabbits,” is a misnomer. Over a period of years sea otters began
to actively compete with us over our clams, cockles, gum boots and sea urchins. In a short time we began to see a decline
in these resources. I am not certain that this may be a reason for the extinction of dungeness crabs, but
there has been no commercial taking of crab for about a decade.
The average weight of an adult sea otter is about a hundred pounds. To maintain their healthly attitude
they have to consume 25% of their body weight every day. And so we found out that a few hundred sea otters can easily gorge
themselves of thousands of pounds of food in a day; multiply by seven days times four and you’ll have an idea of what
it may take to wipe out an area of sea urchins, or gum boots and clams or cockles in a month. It’s
mind boggling to say the least! It
was interesting to learn that whenever a region is “lunched” out the animals would move to another area, and when
that place was ruined they’d move on to the next supply. In the northern part of southeast Alaska after the transplant
sea otters were prevalent, however they are now moving as far as Ketchikan where they used to be rare. Hunters from Ketchikan,
not too long ago, used to go to Sitka to get their supply of sea otters. Subsistence users in Kake, Petersburg,
Wrangell and other communities in southeast are complaining about the invasion of sea otters in their subsistence habitats. Complaining enough during our RAC meetings the past five or so years, we were relieved when we finally got the attention
of resource managers in federal and state governments. The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
is a regional tribal government in southeast. They have formed a committee to research ways to address
this dilemma, but it is early in the game. Hopefully this effort should speed up the process that will influence ways to develop
management plans for all localities in southeast Alaska. There’s a lot going on here and issues that need to be thought out; one is the fact that Natives
are the only ones who can hunt sea otter. There are too many of these animals and not enough Native hunters; so in the management
plans, a provision needs to be developed to address hunting practices so that there is a balance maintained with the population.
We have to be careful so that we don’t make them extinct once again but wholesome enough to keep everyone happy. Another hurdle is that of processing the highly valued pelts.
There are only two processing plants in Alaska where hunters can send their pelts for tanning. Today
the laws and regulations are too strict, and so the management plans will have to be geared to make it easier and affordable
to enable sea otter hunters to create a prosperous business for themselves.
We
have the supply and the demand for sea otter pelts in southeast Alaska. It’s the restrictive activities
in between these economic terms that we have to solve.
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