Toward Mitigating Problems at the Fisheries-Oil Development Interface: The Case of the Salmon Drift Gillnet Fishery in Cook Inlet, Alaska

Abstract

Participants in the drift gillnet fishery in Cook Inlet, Alaska deploy long nets from small boats in treacherous rip zones where salmon tend to congregate. Cook Inlet is also rich in petroleum resources, and oil and natural gas firms active in the region may eventually be permitted to emplace drilling platforms in the fishing grounds to extract such resources. But fishermen express concerns about potential net “wrapping,” disruptions to established patterns of navigation, oil spills, and protracted spill litigation. But fishing and oil and gas production have developed in tandem here, with many actors involved in or appreciative of both forms of enterprise. A model of clearly dichotomized or antagonistic relations between local fishing and global-corporate oil interests is confounded in this region. Moreover, fishery participants deal with a range of more immediately cogent challenges. Thus, while the potential for spatial conflict certainly exists, the social and economic context as described herein may ...