Commercial fishing groups around the state as well as some legislators are scratching their heads over comments made by Rep. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, that he would use his position as co-chair of the House Finance Committee to block any commercial fishing industry bills that reach his committee in the upcoming session in protest of the Board of Fisheries refusal to restrict commercial salmon fishing or reallocate Cook Inlet stocks to the satisfaction of Mat-Su area residents.

According to a story by industry watchdog Bob Tkacz, Stoltze was speaking at a board meeting for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute earlier this month, when he said "I'm just going to be blunt. The Cook Inlet people have declared war against a lot of us up north and I'm just not going to be putting any bills through."

Stoltze is the legislative liaison for ASMI.

Tkacz reports that Stoltze first indicated his plan was not definitive.

"I'm just not going to be real anxious to put up commercial fishing bills. I never say absolutely no but there have been some really bad actions by a lot of people," he said before issuing his "blunt" statement.

His action, in effect, was demanded by his Chugiak district constituents who were angry that he had not imposed the roadblock during the 2009 session, Stoltze indicated.

"I don't want to B.S. anybody here. My constituency was mad at me for letting through the energy efficiency bill, which I thought was a good bill, but I got a lot of kicks in the back on that one: 'Why are you doing that when they're screwing us at every other level?'" Stoltze said.

The energy efficiency bill, which allows fishermen to borrow from a revolving loan fund to upgrade their engines to more energy-efficient models, passed out of the House in 2009, but still needs Senate passage.

Stoltze said many of his constituents have said commercial harvesters should be limited to the remaining harvestable salmon after sport, personal use and subsistence fishing needs are met.

According to Tkacz, three times during his outburst Stoltze suggested his bill blockade was a measure of desperation. "I don't have many tools," he said.

One tool Stoltze chose not to use was the special legislative committee created last year to address the Cook Inlet salmon wars.

Stoltze was a member of the Cook Inlet Salmon Task Force, which was specifically directed to make recommendations to address conservation and allocation issues in the inlet. Like the other nine members on the panel he offered no recommendations. The panel never scheduled a meeting to discuss possible recommendations and never completed the final report that was due in February, although a draft report is available.

Stoltze also charged that Sen. Tom Wagoner, a former commercial fisherman from Kenai, is "trying to figure out ways to screw the dipnet fishery," Tkacz reported. Wagoner said he is drafting legislation that would impose a $5 fee for what are now free dipnet permits but also eliminate the requirement that a dipnetter must also obtain a $24 sport fishing license.

Wagoner wants revenue from the $5 charge to pay for sanitation facilities at dipnet sites and for enforcement. The absence of both has been the subject of complaint by Kenai Peninsula local governments and many dipnetters.

"I find it rather ironic that he's taking that approach. I thought he was smarter than that," Wagoner said.

In an interview following the meeting, Bruce Wallace, the ASMI board's vice chairman and one of two commercial harvesters on the board, told Tkacz "He just went off. It was not an extortive kind of thing, at least I didn't catch it as a threat to go and take something else."

Asked if Stoltze seemed to be offering to trade bill passage for salmon reallocation Wallace said, "He said that and later modified it. The legislative year will bear out the truth of that and I don't know how to draw that line. There will be fishery bills going into House Finance and we'll see what comes out the other side."

Homer Rep. Paul Seaton said Stoltze does indeed have the power to do what he threatened to do, but he also commented that things get said in the heat of the moment that don't necessarily get carried out.

"I'm not sure how much of that was being mad and trying to send somebody messages, and reality," Seaton said.

If Stoltze follows through, it would be a first for Seaton.

"Normally, ... there might be issues that (people) have problems with, and so those bills won't move forward if there's an issue with the bill. But an issue with an industry that's so broadly across the state of Alaska, I haven't seen that before," he said.

It is possible that Stoltze or someone else may introduce legislation allocating Cook Inlet stocks, but the legislature in the past has shied away from that role, said Seaton.

"The legislature has basically assigned that task to the Board of Fisheries," he said. "It doesn't mean that the legislature couldn't decide to take actions in allocation issues. (However,) the legislature has been historically very reticent to do that, and I don't see that changing."

Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist. She can be reached at realist468@gmail.com.