Fish Become The Newest Political Football In Senate Race Democrats Desperately Want To Flip
Former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola has made fishing the centerpiece of her campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska.
Former Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola has made fishing the centerpiece of her campaign to unseat Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan in Alaska.
Peltola, who is Yup’ik and grew up fishing on the Kuskokwim River, has revived her longtime “Fish, Family, Freedom” slogan from her House campaigns and is calling for a ban on factory trawling.
“I’m the only candidate on this stage who’s an Alaskan fisherman. Fish is in my blood, earned over generations on the water,” Peltola said at a Sept. 12 fisheries debate hosted by the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, the Alaska Beacon reported.
The Peltola and Sullivan campaigns and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s requests for comment.
The fight centers on bycatch — the salmon, halibut and crab swept up in the nets of large trawlers harvesting pollock and other groundfish in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska — which many Alaskans blame, at least in part, for weak salmon runs and declining halibut and crab stocks, the outlet reported.
The race could help decide which party controls the Senate, Gunnar Knapp, a retired University of Alaska Anchorage economist, told the Beacon.
Brett Watson, an economist at the University of Alaska Anchorage, told the outlet he could not recall fishing issues playing “such a central role in a statewide or federal campaign.”
Peltola and her supporters accuse Sullivan of siding with out-of-state industrial fishing companies that contribute to his campaign, according to the outlet.