Originally published in the Anchorage Daily News Oct. 1, 1996
Local activist Michael O’Callaghan ended a 48-day hunger strike Saturday without the concessions he hoped to gain from Gov. Tony Knowles on the issues of roe-stripping and fish dumping. O’Callaghan said he abandoned the effort because he concluded his protest was no longer constructive, and because he was tempted by macadamia nuts.
''I found myself backsliding,'' he said Monday.
He ate a macadamia nut Saturday, he said.
''I love macadamia nuts. . . . But then, what are you doing here, who are we fooling? Am I going to have a list of eight things I'm only going to eat, so I'm half-fasting? It loses its clarity. I don't want to be hypocritical,'' he said.
Knowles spokesman Bob King said he was pleased by the news.
''The governor has said all along that he doesn't think Michael has to starve himself in order to get his point across,'' he said.
O'Callaghan, 52, began the fast to protest what he said was the waste of salmon by hatcheries. Faced with a tough market, hatchery operators sought and gained exemptions from state laws this year in order to strip fish eggs and dump the carcasses. As the matter now stands, they may be permitted to do the same next year.
O'Callaghan maintains the fish could be given away, something his organization Earth has done for the last six years. He believes the exemptions should be rescinded.
Alarmed by what he feared was O'Callaghan's failing health, Knowles sent the activist a letter Wednesday asking him to end his protest. In the letter, Knowles said he was suspending the hatchery exemptions for this year, a move that seemed to have little effect since the fisheries were all but over.
O'Callaghan promptly denounced it and said he would continue his protest.
He had a change of heart, not just because of the macadamia nuts, he said, but because he had second thoughts about his strike.
''I remembered one of Tony's points -- what they said was a major hold-back in the process was that they felt I was holding a gun to my head, and that's not my intent at all. ...
''So now I have removed that perceived obstacle, and I will see if their words are true or empty. The ball is again in Tony's court.''
O'Callaghan said he has made seven proposals to the Knowles administration to deal with surplus fish. They include rescinding the exemptions, more stringent enforcement of existing laws, and new ways to fund distribution of surplus fish.
He said he will fast again if Knowles doesn't take action on his proposals, but he would not set a deadline.
King said he was disappointed that O'Callaghan still refuses to attend a planned meeting of hatcheries, food banks and other organizations, something the Knowles administration touts as the right forum to address the organizer's concerns. No date has been set yet for the gathering, King said, but it will go ahead with or without O'Callaghan.
O'Callaghan said he will consider his fast a success no matter what the governor does.
He said he's added peas and rice to his diet since he formally ended his protest, and Monday evening he sat down to a salmon dinner with his family.
He was thinking about having a macadamia nut chocolate turtle.
''They are beyond compare,'' he said. ''And the next best is a macadamia nut truffle.''