Set netters: Here’s how drift boats can keep set net sites safe

On social media, set netters educate drift boats on how to prevent damage to set net gear.

Megan Hurlburt was pulling a set net on Ekuk beach when a drift boat snapped her line.

“We had our truck attached to our upper end line to pull them back in,” Hurlburt said. “And somebody came and like full speed ran over our upper end line and cut our upper end line.”

Hurlburt says that at Ekuk beach, where she set nets to fish for salmon, lines are attached to permanent anchors using a pulley system. Those lines hold a lot of tension.

Hurlbert likened set net lines to a rubber band. “If you stretch out a rubber band really tight and then like, nick it, you don’t have to cut it. Because it’ll just snap,” Hurlburt said.

She says prop boat propellers can cut lines, but so can jet boats, ever riding high in the water: Any pressure from a drift boat could snap a line. “And they’re strong ropes. And so it’s like a, it’s a big snap. And it can really injure somebody, like it could even kill somebody,” Hurlburt said.

When her line was cut, Hurlburt says it put her crew in danger. “We’re pulling on that line with our truck and our crew member is standing there, like with his hand on the line,” Hurlburt said.

Thankfully, she says he was OK. Then, there was another stroke of luck. Hurlburt says another drift boat came by and played the part of the good Samaritan, bringing them the end of the snapped line. Hurlbert says that was lucky, because having to retrieve nets can be dangerous.

“We can’t be fishing out beyond our site. So there’s no choice about going and recovering the net. And we’re launching little skiffs off of Ekuk, and you know, if you’ve spent any time along Ekuk, you’ll find that it gets really rough the and currents really strong,” Hurlburt said.

The other impact is lost fishing time. Hurlbert tried to fix the net by tying a knot in her line, but now, it keeps coming undone. “So we’re pretty much just limping along with that thing. It broke like four days in a row. It’s been a little bit frustrating,” she said.

Hurlburt posted about these challenges on Facebook. She did that because she thinks lack of awareness is a big part of the problem. She says jet boats in particular may not even realize they could be causing harm.

“They can run over drift nets with a jet and it doesn’t, like, doesn’t break anything, because they’re drifting, there’s no tension on them. And so I think it really is, for the most part, just not understanding,” she said.

Shannon Ford Ward, another set netter, had her anchor pulled up this year when a drift boat got tangled. “There was a drift boat on our gear and they pulled up the whole outer anchor that is way out in the mud. It is very difficult to get out there and replace it,” Ford Ward said.

She says set net gear stays in the water even when the nets are out because anchors can only be set at extra low tides. “It took us five days before we were able to fish again to replace the entire site and set it up again,” she said.

She says for many set netters, summer income makes or breaks their whole year. Missing fishing time can have a big impact.

Ford Ward says, one way to avoid damaging set net gear is by staying outside of the buoys that set netters put on the ends of their lines. But legally, boats need to stay 100 feet from the end of the net—not from those buoys. The net may be further back, or pulled up on shore.

Ford Ward thinks a change to the wording of that regulation, to keep boats outside buoys instead of outside nets, could better protect set netters.

“To me, the outer buoy part is what would solve all the problems. If they did not come inside of set net buoys, they would not run over anything that they wouldn’t know where it was,” she said.

That regulation comes from the Board of Fish, which will be accepting proposals for changes this winter. State troopers say they issued three citations for violations last year. Last year, the board turned down a proposal to extend the required distance from the net.

Alaska State Law 16.10.055 prohibits recklessly interfering with another fisherman’s gear; that law can also address the issue. That law could mean misdemeanor charges if drift boats are far from a net but still break a line or pull and anchor.

Austin McDaniel is with the state troopers. He says set netters should reach out if boats damage their gear. “It’s really helpful if you’re able to provide us with some video of this happening. And hopefully that video has some identifying information of that vessel,” McDaniel said.

McDaniel says that it can take time for complaints to be resolved, but it does happen. He says the last conviction for this was in Bristol Bay for a drift boat that interfered with set net gear. But that conviction was back in 2020, and there have been no convictions under that statute since.

Ford Ward wasn’t surprised. “I know that for years I have been recording when things are happening, and then sending footage to the troopers, and then nothing has happened,” she said.

To be fair, she says, it can be hard to tell from a video if something was reckless or if it was an accident. She says maybe a regulation that lets troopers ticket regardless of intent could help set netters.

That would be similar to regulations about where to fish. “Everybody knows that you’re gonna get ticketed if you get caught over the line,” she said.

Other solutions that popped up in facebook comments this week included violence and sabotage. Ford Ward said that’s not the way to go.

“Obviously, we don’t want to violate other laws in order to try and uphold this one,” she said.

Instead, she suggested that drifters mark set net sites in their navigation systems so they can easily avoid them.

Both set netters said they thought most of the drift boat fleet is already doing their best to keep set netters safe. They say that really, they’d like to see this issue resolved through awareness and courtesy.

And Hurlbert says she’s already seeing that happen. “I have to say that for the most part, I’ve seen boats staying outside of our buoys, since we have posted [on Facebook] explaining that,” she said.

Set netters who want to report interference with their gear can contact the state troopers. Their Dillingham phone number is 907-842-5351. And their King Salmon number is 907-246-3307.