Ronald Seaman has been subsistence halibut fishing for five years.

Seaman said he was one of the first people to apply for and receive a Subsistence Halibut Registration Certificate or SHARC card, when the federal program began in 2003.

This year, Seaman was told he can’t renew his SHARC card because he lives in Chiniak.

“I’ve had one since the beginning and renewed it religiously every two years,” Seaman said. “I went to renew it this year and found out that Chiniak is not eligible.”

According to National Marine Fisheries Service, you must either be a member of an Alaska Native tribe or a resident of a rural community to be eligible for the Restricted Access Management Program.

Chiniak, along with the borough of Kodiak outside of city limits, is not designated as rural, although it is recognized by the U.S. Census Bureau as a census designated place.

The city of Kodiak is officially considered rural, according to NOAA, and residents can therefore subsistence halibut fish.

“How can a town of 8,000 people be eligible?” Seaman said. “I’m 42 miles out a dirt road in a community of 300 people, and I’m not eligible, because I’m not rural.”

Seaman said that he knows of other Chiniak residents who have Kodiak post office boxes and have been able to renew their cards.

One Chiniak resident suggested that a way to finesse the rules would simply be to put Kodiak on your application instead of Chiniak, because the zip code is the same.

Ken Hansen, an Alaska region enforcement officer with NOAA, advises against this.

“That’s the law,” he said. “It’s technically where your domicile is; what your address is.”

Hansen said that, as an enforcement officer, he had to cut up his own SHARC card and return it to the Restricted Access Management Program because he lives in Mill Bay, just outside Kodiak city limits.

“It’s an unpleasant situation,” he said. “It’s one of those bureaucratic snafu issues.”

Hansen said the problem stems from the original wording of the SHARC legislation.

“When SHARC was drafted, the agency used the wording the State of Alaska had provided for the Kodiak road system,” he said. “We ended up with only the City of Kodiak being eligible.”

The oversight has only recently come to the attention of the agency, and although Hansen said they have not been aggressively enforcing violations, they are now “enforcing what is on the books, until it’s changed,” and not renewing cards for people with addresses outside city limits.

“Technically, he never was eligible,” Hansen said, referring to Seaman.

Hansen said the agency is working on the problem, but that it may take some time for people like Seaman to see the results they hope for.

“They’re working on it, but it has to go through the regulatory process,” he said. “The agency is trying to make all of Kodiak Island eligible.”

Seaman has been aggressively fighting a losing battle and said he is beginning to lose patience.

“It’s been aggravating,” Seaman said. “I’ve been fighting it for four months. I’ve sent them borough maps, gave them phone numbers, sent them the borough Web site, but I’ve gotten as far as I can get with them. I’m at the point where I need some help.”

Seaman said the fish he catches and stores is about a quarter of the food he and his family consume during the winter months, when he’s also cutting wood and trapping.

“It’s part of my living,” he said. “I cut firewood and sell furs for a living. I don’t have a real job. I work for myself out there. My family depends on that fish.”

Seaman said he is not letting the problem stop him from fishing for halibut, but that it is taking a toll.

“I can’t drop 30 hooks to fill my freezer. I’ve got to sport fish to get my fish,” he said. “I’d have 300, maybe 400 pounds of fish put away by now. I’ve gotten one 80-pounder and a couple of 20s sport fishing in my rowboat.”

Hansen said the only way he can legally see to get around the issue is to fish with somebody who has a card.

“You can share fishing and share fish,” he said.

Hansen described the situation as “an embarrassment to the agency.”

“But until we can get that language worked out, we can’t issue those cards,” he said.

For now, Seaman and others in his position will have to resort to other means to fill their freezers with halibut, or wait until the regulations change to subsistence fish for halibut legally.

“It’s not going to stop me from catching my fish,” Seaman said. “It’s just making it harder. I don’t need a plastic card to kill fish.”

Mirror writer Erik Wander can be reached via e-mail at ewander@kodiakdailymirror.com.