Hunting and Fishing in Southeast Alaska

Abstract

In most southeast Alaska towns, households that don't hunt and fish are unusual. A recent survey of 30 southeast communities found that about 85 percent of households get at least some of their food by hunting and fishing. But among the thousands of households that hunt and fish, there are significant differences. Figure 1 shows that while 34 percent of survey households annually harvest just 1 to 80 pounds of fish and game per household member, nearly 10 percent harvest more than 500 pounds per household member. And while some households do not eat any wild fish and game, nearly a third of survey households get half or more of their total meat and fish by hunting and fishing. These are among the findings of the Tongass Resource Use Cooperative Study (TRUCS), a 1988 survey carried out jointly by the Institute of Social and Economic Research, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and the U.S. Forest Service. The study documents hunting and fishing for household use in all permanent southeast Alaska communities except the largest, Juneau and Ketchikan. This Review presents the findings of that survey. It also discusses how this kind of information could be useful to state policymakers trying to define who should be classified as subsistence users, and to federal and state land managers charged with protecting subsistence uses on public lands.