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Dear Daily News:
I read your Kachemak Bay jet ski story in the March 6 paper. The story was good as far as it went, but there remains a more important story just under the surface of that story. The state officials quoted are cynically disregarding the process of public comments and dissembling in their remarks to you.
By law, public comments should be a meaningful part of making public policy in Alaska. That public process allows residents to explain how policy may affect them personally, provides an avenue for people to provide information from personal experience that may not be available to the best-intentioned public officials, and promotes consideration of policy proposals from many perspectives. I know you know that.
In this case, the Alaska public, in general, and the public in communities around Kachemak Bay, in particular, overwhelmingly oppose jet skis for good reasons, as they long have. Despite that, Gov. Mike Dunleavy and Fish and Game Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang apparently have already decided jet skis will be turned loose on Kachemak Bay, regardless of the views of marine biologists or local residents. They are now just going through the motions of “considering” public comments.
According to Fish and Game spokesman Rick Green in your story, those opposed to jet skis submitted 1,005 comments, and those supporting jet skis submitted more than 1,600.
The majority of these "public comments” are actually an attempt to stack the deck against continuing the ban by jet-ski owners, retailers and manufacturers. Gina Poths, whom you quoted in the story, is the president of the Personal Watercraft Club of Alaska, a charter club of the American Watercraft Association. The AWA is a trade organization representing the manufacturers of jet skis. One of its ongoing projects is to oppose any limitation on the use of jet skis on any public water, no matter where.
The 1,600 comments in support of lifting the ban in Kachemak are the epitome of an “astroturf” campaign manufactured by the jet-ski special interests. That’s why, as your story said, the “vast majority” of anti-ban comments were form letters or "signed petitions.”
And that’s why the petitioners include such noted Kachemak Bay experts as “Ic Wiener” of Fort Scott, Kansas, “and I oof” of Seattle, Washington, and “Anonymous Anonymous” of Citrus Heights, California.
Don’t take my word for it, look for yourself at the people whose names are on the petition endorsing jet skis in Kachemak Bay. For example:
Rachel Chlup, of Sa, US
Michael Fefelov, of Cabo San Lucas, Mexico
stephen hoffman, of Huntington Beach, California
Ingrid Gatward, of US
Neeraj batani, of Castaic, California
bruh souls, of Seattle, Washington
anonymous jr, of Ashburn, Virginia
big bruh, of US
We are talking about an overwhelming majority of real Alaskans, who know and love Kachemak Bay and are concerned about its phenomenal wildlife, and the effects of noise, fuel and other pollution, having their concerns treated as no more legitimate than those of preposterous, mocking, made-up people who couldn't find Kachemak Bay on a map.
The American Watercraft Association doesn’t give a damn about Kachemak Bay or anything or anyone who lives on it or near it. The jet-ski owners’, sellers’ and manufacturers’ goal is to fight any restriction anywhere on these machines, regardless of the consequences to local people and the environment.
It is simply outrageous to see state officials playing along with this. Why are they doing it? I think it is because they don’t care about the public process they are required by law to follow.
Doug Vincent-Lang, Rick Green and Mike Dunleavy can see what is going on here as easily as you or I can. Your story, though technically accurate, did not really expose the charade, or address the complicity of state officials in that effort.
I encourage you to dig deeper into the legitimacy of this campaign. Please ask Doug Vincent-Lang some very hard questions about public participation in Fish and Game decisions and how he is helping to rig this game.
The governor had planned to make an appearance in Homer this week. I was going to suggest you send a reporter to cover that because you would have had an opportunity to document what real Alaskans think about unlimited jet skis in Kachemak Bay. The governor is fortunate to have had the coronavirus threat as a reason to call off that meeting.
Yes, there are Alaskans like Gina Poths, who wants the right to drive her jet ski on any public water in Alaska — or anywhere in the United States, for that matter — no matter the cost to the environment. But that is not the view of Alaskans who care about Kachemak Bay and the things that make it special.
If jet-ski ban proponents succeed in imposing jet skis on Kachemak Bay, will the supporters of drilling rigs be far behind, opposing that ban as well? No doubt they too will show up waving online petitions signed by “IC Wiener of Houston, Texas,” expecting a warm welcome from Gov. Dunleavy and Doug Vincent-Lang.
Finally, you should know that I am the president of Cook Inletkeeper. I’m also the former editor of the Anchorage Daily News. I care very much about protecting our natural resources, the legitimacy of the public process, and good journalism.
Pat Dougherty is the president of Cook Inletkeeper, a nonprofit group that seeks to protect the environment in and around the waters of Southcentral Alaska. He is a former editor of the Anchorage Daily News.
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