For her campaign, Peltola said that she is still crafting her platform, but she knows that she wants to elevate issues related to Alaska subsistence fishing and food security. She said that she would work to reauthorize and amend the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which governs fishery management in federal waters. The act was last reauthorized in 2007, before the widespread decline in salmon runs across Alaska.
“Clearly, there needs to be changes in terms of exporting the vast majority of seafood from our state when our own Alaska citizens are having severe food insecurity issues,” Peltola said.
Subsistence salmon fishing in the Yukon-Kuskowkim Delta, where Peltola lives, has become increasingly restricted as Chinook and Chum salmon runs have dropped, cutting off a primary food source for residents.
Peltola wants to amend the Magnuson-Stevens Act to protect subsistence and personal use fishing. She also wants to impose stricter limits on bycatch in trawl fisheries.
The Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission, which Peltola serves as Executive Director, formed a coalition with 118 tribes across Western Alaska that petitioned the U.S. Department of Commerce to eliminate Chinook salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea and to cap Chum salmon bycatch. The department denied the petition.
Peltola also wants to amend the Magnuson-Stevens Act to make federal fishery managers more responsive to ecosystem changes.
“If you are a person that believes that we are witnessing an ecosystem collapse both in the Bering Sea and our river system, we do feel there is a need for adaptive management and pivoting when we need to pivot,” Peltola said.
Peltola is Yup’ik and one of four Alaska Natives running for the U.S. House seat. The others are Laurel Foster, Cup’ik; Emil Notti, Koyukon Athabascan; and Tara Sweeney, Inupiat. In her interview with KYUK, Peltola did not emphasize her heritage. But she did emphasize multiple times that she is Alaskan; she was born, raised, and has lived her adult life in the state.
“I really feel that as an Alaskan, that we need to have representation at all levels, and that’s not to say that you have to be born here to represent anyone. It’s just there are a lot of us who are very sensitive about being a colony and that perpetuating,” Peltola said.
She said that as an Alaskan she’s highly aware of Alaskans’ relationship with the land.
“I feel that for many Alaskans, so many of the places where we hunt and gather are sacred places to us. They are like another entity in our life. They are like another person,” Peltola said.
She said that her strongest tie in this world is to an area of the Kuskokwim River where her grandparents lived. Pelota grew up in the Kuskokwim area communities of Kwethluk, Tuntutuliak, Platinum, and Bethel, where she fished commercially and for subsistence. She attended high school in Bethel, Alaska; Ft. Collins, Colorado; and Pennsylvania. She attended college in Alaska and Colorado.
Her ties are to the Kuskokwim, but as a state-wide candidate, she said that she would work to understand issues across Alaska and to find solutions.
“Each region is so unique, and so many of the issues aren’t necessarily transferable. I’m going to be very interested to learn what the issues are in the other five regions of our state and talk with as many people as I can,” Peltola said.
The special primary election date is June 11. It will be Alaska’s first state-wide by-mail election. Alaskans have until May 12 to register or update their mailing address to receive a ballot. The top four candidates who receive the most votes will appear on the August 16 ballot for the special general election.