The bristol BAY native association (bbna) is a consortium of the 31 federally recognized tribes in the bristol BAY region of rural alaska

Partners for fisheries monitoring program functions are conducted by staff of the bbna natural resources department and include facilitating and implementing directed research projects to monitor subsistence fisheries resources as well as local harvesters ability to access the resources. This involves coordinating tribal and local participation in the federal and state systems which manage these resources. The bbna natural resources department (NRD) also directs the fisheries and marine mammals summer internship programs, in pursuit of fostering the development of our future resource managers. The mission of NRD is to protect the rights of its 31 bristol BAY villages to choose how to continue to meet their subsistence, cultural, and economic needs. Consistent with solid stewardship, sustainability and self-reliance, the program helps advance our villages natural resource management goals. Bristol BAY tribes and residents are reliant upon subsistence resources to meet their nutritional and cultural needs. IT is necessary to continue expanding on the achievements of the bbna partners program to date, as many participants in the federal subsistence management system rely upon the expertise of bbnas staff and the technical services they provide. Our program ensures effective participation from bristol BAY tribes and local residents in the federal regulatory processes. The working relationships that bbna has with our member tribes, the U.S. Fish and wildlife service, alaska department of fish game, national park service as well as other regional non-profit tribal consortia strengthens not only the state and federal management systems individually but provides a coordinated approach to management activities between all stakeholders. Bbna partners program staff ensure that federal subsistence management proposals, policies, regulations, rulemaking, tribal consultation opportunities and related information is provided to bristol BAY tribes through directed information sharing. Bbna has successfully administered 20 cooperative agreements with the USFWS for federal subsistence management projects through both the fisheries resources monitoring program and the partners for fisheries monitoring program. Since the inception of the partners program at bbna, the program social and fisheries scientists have served as principal investigators and CO-investigators on collaborative federal subsistence fisheries resource monitoring project. The programs current subsistence fisheries scientist, cody larson serves as CO-investigator on multiple subsistence fisheries research projects funded through both the USFWS and NSF. Funding of the bbna partners for fisheries monitoring program is critical to the success of these projects and will ensure the meaningful and continued involvement of local subsistence harvesters and tribal councils in the federal subsistence management system in bristol BAY.