Ketchikan artist Christy Ruby says that she’s been frustrated for years by how the Marine Mammal Protection Act — the 1972 law informing how sea otters are managed — is written.
attempted to make it easier to sell intact hides. Proponents say that increasing sea otter hunting would help bolster lucrative shellfish fisheries.
She’s worried about allowing non-Native hunters to kill sea otters. That’s against the law under the MMPA. If the rules are relaxed, Ruby said she thinks hunters will flood the market with hides and lower the value of the traditional work she creates. Will Ware, a Tlingit artist who lives in Petersburg, also opposes opening sea otter hunts to non-Native people.The law currently requires hunters to be at least one-fourth coastal Alaska Native by blood quantum. He says he’d like to allow any enrolled tribal member to hunt. For example, in Ketchikan, that would allow anyone enrolled with Ketchikan Indian Community to hunt sea otters.
Jeremiah James, an artist based in Yakutat, also has an issue with marketing laws. Some of his pieces have sold for around $1,000, but he can’t reach a wider market. “When people talk about opening it up to more people, all I see is another thing that’s being taken away from my people,” he said. Back in her brightly lit studio, surrounded by fur-draped mannequins and old sewing machines, Ruby, the Ketchikan artist, said she agrees. She thinks the answer lies in more aggressive support for Native hunters, and maybe even more communication with crabbers and fishermen about where they’re seeing the sea otters move.
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