THE USE OF FISH AND WILDLIFE IN CLARK’S POINT, ALASKA by Jody Seitz Technical Paper No. 186 Alaska Department of Fish and Game Division of Subsistence Juneau, Alaska May 1996 The Alaska Department of Fish and Game operates all of its public programs and activities free from discrimination on the basis of sex, color, race, religion, national origin, age, marital status, pregnancy, parenthood, or disability. For information on alternative formats available .for this and other department publications, please contact the department ADA Coordinator at (voice) 907- 465-4720, (TDD) l-800-478-3548 or (fax) 907-586-6595. Any person who believes she or he has been discriminated against should write to: Alaska Department of Fish and Game PO Box 25526 Juneau, AK 99802-5526 or O.E.O. U. S. Department of the Interior Washington, D. C. 20240 ABSTRACT This report describes patterns of hunting, fishing, and gathering of wild resources in the community of Clark’s Point, on the northeastern shore of Nushagak Bay in the Bristol Bay region of southwest Alaska, 305 miles southwest of Anchorage. The study year was from November 1988 through October 1989. In the fall of 1989, the community of Clark’s Point and neighboring Ekuk (now used primarily as a summer fish camp) combined had 17 year-round households. The average household size was 3.3 individuals. The population of Clark’s Point was 56 (55 percent male, 45 percent female). Of all the residents, 92.9 percent were of Alaska Native descent. Over one half of the population was born in Clark’s Point (55.4 percent); 23.2 percent were born in other Bristol Bay communities, and 8.9 percent were born in other Alaska communities. Only 7.1 percent were born outside Alaska. (Place of birth information was missing for 5.4 percent.) The average amount of time all residents had lived at Clark’s Point was 19.2 years. The average length of residency for adults over I8 years of age was 26.2 years. The local cash economy was based primarily on commercial fishing. In 1989 Clark’s Point residents held a total of 6 commercial setnet and 7 commercial driftnet salmon permits. This is a decline from 1988 when the community held 12 drift and 1 I setnet permits. There were only three full-time, year- round jobs at Clark’s Point, although most adults (83.8 percent) were employed for at least part of the study year. Within any one household an average of 3.4 jobs were held. The average length of employment was 6.9 months Many individuals worked more than one job and some shared their jobs with a spouse or son or daughter. In 1989, the cost of living (based on nine standard expenditures) averaged $997 per household. The cost of food in Dillingham, the regional center, was 1.63 times higher than that of Anchorage. The 1988189 cash income at Clark’s Point averaged $9,718 per capita, compared to $17,610 for the State of Alaska in 1989. Participant observation and interviews in conjunction with harvest surveys found that subsistence activities in 1989 continued to be a vital aspect of community life in Clark’s Point. Residents followed a seasonal round of activities conditioned by transportation, equipment availability, resource availability, weather, and hunting and fishing regulations. High levels of resource use and harvest at Clark’s Point were found in 1989. The mean household harvest was I ,I 96 pounds (usable weight), while the per capita harvest was 363 pounds. One hundred percent of the households in the community used salmon and wild plants. Ninety-four percent used non-salmon fish; 77 percent used marine mammals; 82 percent used land mammals; and 88 percent used birds and eggs In addition, all households in the community harvested some wild food during the study year. For example, 88 percent of all households harvested salmon as well as birds and eggs; 82 percent of all households harvested non-salmon fish; 47 percent harvested marine mammals, big game, and small land mammals; 12 percent harvested marine invertebrates; and every household harvested berries. Clark’s Point residents used in total 64 kinds of fish, game and plant resources in 1988/89. The average number of resources used per household was 20.7 and ranged between a low of 6 and a high of 39 different wild foods. Salmon comprised about 49 percent of the overall harvest of wild resources for home use. The salmon were harvested and processed in the traditional manner by drying and smoking. The 1989 harvest of salmon was a much higher percentage of the total harvest than in 1973 (22 percent), although the per capita harvest of all resources in 1973/74 of 335 pounds (excluding plants) was very close to that of 1989. The difference in the amount of salmon harvested may be a result of a change in the regulatory structure for subsistence fishing in the commercial district. When the permit data base was compared with the salmon harvest with subsistence gear from the harvest survey, the extrapolated totals from the permits gave somewhat higher estimates than the harvest survey. However, the harvest survey also recorded salmon taken home from commercial catches. Sockeye and chinook salmon brought home from the commercial catch raised the amount of salmon used for home use considerably over the permit data base extrapolated totals. The difference may result from the harvesters not including salmon taken from their commercial catches on their subsistence permits, In the 1988189 study year, residents of Clark’s Point carried out most of their harvest activities within Game Management Units 17 and 9. They harvested moose and caribou during the regulatory open seasons, and trapped furbearers, primarily beaver, within the area between the Nushagak River and Etolin Point. Of the overall harvest, moose and caribou comprised 23.9 percent by weight. Small land mammals made up 2.1 percent and marine mammals 3.8 percent of the overall harvest by weight. Moose, caribou, and marine mammals were distributed within the community and with relatives in other villages as well. For example, 64.7 percent of the households received caribou from harvesters outside their households, 70.6 percent received moose, and 41.2 percent received seal meat or oil. There were other differences in the harvest composition between 1988189 and 1973174. Big game harvests in 1988189 represented a smaller percentage of the overall harvest than in 1973/74 (23.9 percent compared to 37.3 percent). Marine mammals were a much smaller percentage of the 1989 harvest than in 1973 (3.8 compared to 22.3 percent). In 1973 the harvest was more equally distributed by weight between salmon, non-salmon fish, big game, and marine mammals, than in 1989, when salmon and big game made up about 73 percent of the total harvest by weight. Additionally, in 1989, more households harvested salmon than in 1973, but a smaller percentage of the 1989 households harvested big game, furbearers, or marine mammals In summary, in 1988/89, Clark’s Point demonstrated the characteristics of a community with a mixed cash/subsistence economy. Subsistence activities were an integral part of daily life, in which households cooperated and shared with each other. The per capita harvest was similar to that of I7 years earlier. There were extensive networks of sharing among households at Clark’s Point and between other villages in the region and a few outside Bristol Bay. TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS . i LIST OF TABLES . ..... iii LIST OF FIGURES . ... iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . v CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION.. ............................................................................................... 1 Background ................................................................................................................................ I Purpose ..................................................................................................................................... 1 Research Methods ..................................................................................................................... 3 Limitations of the Data.. .............................................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER TWO: THE COMMUNITY AND THE AREA.. ................................................................ 5 location and Natural Environment.. ............................................................................................ 5 History of the Area.. .................................................................................................................... 7 The Historic Seasonal Round ................................................................................................... IO Historic Demography.. .............................................................................................................. I2 The Contemporary Community ............................................................................................... 12 Demography.. ........................................................................................................................ 12 Services and Facilities.. ....................................... ................................................................. 16 Employment ........................................................................................................................... I8 Monetary Income.. ................................................................................................................. 21 Cost of Living.. ......................................................................................................................