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Legislation proposing sea-otter bounties will get its first hearing next week. It’s already drawing opposition from environmental groups and the federal marine mammal protection agency.

Fishermen harvesting Dungeness crab, geoduck clams and some other ocean-floor species have been coming up empty in recent years.

The reason is the rapid expansion of the sea otter population. The marine mammals mostly eat clams. But as they bring their voracious appetites into new areas, they clear out many of the shellfish sought by commercial, subsistence and personal-use divers and fishermen.

“So what we’re trying to do is come up with some assistance for the folks in the area that want to go out and harvest them to afford to be able to do so,” says Sitka Republican Senator Bert Stedman. He represents Kake, Prince of Wales Island and other coastal Southeast communities where otters have moved in.

He’s authored a bill that would give Alaska Natives – the only people who can legally hunt marine mammals – a $100 reward for each pelt they take.

“You’ve got your costs of your fuel and other items you need. Also, there’s tanning cost issues. We’re just trying to assist in the harvest,” he says.

Otters were once widespread along the West Coast from California out to the Aleutians. Russian and American hunters virtually wiped them out, except for a few remote areas.

They were reintroduced to Southeast about 50 years ago. Recent studies say their numbers have grown by as much as 12 percent a year in southern Southeast and 4 percent in the north.

Federal legislation protects otters, only allowing Alaska Natives to harvest them for traditional purposes.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman Bruce Woods says states can’t impose bounties.

“The Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibits any state from enforcing a law that affects the take of a marine mammal without first soliciting and receiving management authority for that species from the Secretary of the Interior,” Woods says.

The agency is working with Native hunters and craftspeople to better define the legal use of pelts. That could increase the overall harvest.

But Woods says Stedman’s legislation, and a similar bill in the House, are trumped by federal rules.

“We’ve got nothing to say about whether the law could be passed or not. But if the law were enforced, at least by an initial reading of the MMPA, that enforcement would be illegal,” he says.

Opposition to the bill is growing among some of the same organizations that campaigned against wolf control. They say otter population growth is a good thing.

“They’re a keystone species,” says Tina Brown, president of the Alaska Wildlife Alliance.

She points out that otters eat sea urchins, which eat kelp, allowing coastal Southeast to return to its natural balance.

“When you have the kelp forest, you have nurseries for finfish and it’s thought that the kelp forest can increase herring populations and salmon populations. Another benefit is they reduce CO2 emissions and slow ocean acidification,” she says.

Brown says the alliance is talking with other groups, as well as legislators and attorneys, about the bounty bill’s impacts.

“I can’t say whether it makes a difference in the numbers of sea otters. I can say that it makes a difference on the way Alaska appears before the rest of the country and the world,” Brown says.

And what about the hunters?

Tlingit-Haida Central Council Economic Development Director Carrie Sykes has been working on the issue. She says tribal members have mixed feelings.

“Some people think that it would be a good idea, in that it could offset the cost of hunting and tanning,” she says. “The others are worried about what the perception will be from different organizations, like Defenders of Wildlife. And we’re not sure how it would really work.

Sykes says local tribes have more influence on the issue than the regional Central Council.

Stedman, the Senate bill’s author, says it should be considered a first draft. He expects changes as it’s considered by the Legislature.

“Maybe we end up having this just a Southeast program and we exclude areas where the sea otters are elsewhere, out in the Aleutians and other places,” he says. “We’re not trying to eradicate, but we’re trying to control the growth.”

He also expects organized opposition.

“And I recognize that there are a lot of citizens outside of Southeast Alaska that might just think this is a ghastly thing to do. But I can assure you we’re better prepared to take care of our own backyard than people in San Francisco and Florida are,” Stedman says.

His legislation comes before the Senate Resources Committee on March 13. The House version, introduced by Anchorage Republican Representative Charisse Millett, is not yet scheduled.

The widow of the late Gov. Jay Hammond wants a television advertisement that compares her husband to Sean Parnell taken off the air.

Bella Hammond and her daughter Heidi Hammond say they were never consulted about the TV ad that urges the Alaska Legislature to pass Gov. Parnell’s oil tax bill.

The commercial by an Anchorage group “Resource Full Alaska” is narrated by Glenn Hackney, a former state senator from Fairbanks, who served during the Hammond administration.

In a news release put out by Backbone, the Hammonds say the ad “misappropriates former Governor Hammond’s legacy and his good name.”

Backbone is non-partisan public-interest group that started in 1999 to fight the proposed merger of ARCO and BP.  It re-emerged last year to take on Parnell’s proposed oil tax cuts. Malcolm Roberts, long-time aide to the late Governor Wally Hickel, is the group’s spokesman.

 

 

The Alaska House of Representatives has come out against genetically engineered salmon, or as critics call it, “Frankenfish.”

Representatives unanimously approved House Joint Resolution 5 on Wednesday. It urges the US Food and Drug Administration to reconsider a preliminary finding that genetically modified fish would not significantly impact the environment. The resolution also urges the agency to require labeling for GM salmon, if the product is ultimately approved.

The legislation was sponsored by Anchorage Democrat Geran Tarr. She says genetically engineered fish has not been proven safe.

“The resolution opposes this move for three reasons,” Tarr said on the House floor. “Threats to wild salmon stocks; threats to human health and consumer confidence in wild Alaska salmon; and potential negative economic impact on our wild seafood industry.”

The House joins the Parnell administration, the state’s Congressional delegation, and thousands of Alaskans represented by seafood industry groups in opposing genetically modified fish.

The resolution now goes to the state Senate.

Massachusetts-based biotech company AquaBounty petitioned the FDA to approve the genetically engineered fish — an Atlantic salmon with genes from a Chinook salmon and an eel-like fish to make it grow faster. The company has spent nearly $70 million dollars since forming in 1991.

The FDA recently extended the public comment period on AquaBounty’s petition through April 26th.

Most of us have heard stories of an Alaskan with an idea for a business that just takes off.

There’s the boatyard that became a major tour operator. Or the beer-lovers who now sell in more than a dozen states.

Representatives of some of those businesses talked about how they made it work during the recent Innovation Summit at Juneau’s Centennial Hall.

One is a business that provides the flexibility needed for local hire.

Huna Totem Corp. Board Chairman Russell Dick says its Icy Strait Point tourist attraction does just that. He says the seasonal business employs village residents who don’t want a year-round job.

“Nobody works in these communities to work for a Microsoft,” Dick says. “Their idea of lifestyle compatible is the ability to go deer hunting, the ability to go berry gathering, to do these things that make living in a rural community critically important to them.”

Dick is also president and CEO of Haa Aani’, a Sealaska subsidiary pursuing economic development in Southeast. It’s been helping village residents set up oyster farms and sell their product.

He says it’s a collaborative business model, not a grant program.

“We as a for-profit entity were willing to put money into this, we’re willing to put in time. But we’re not going to solve the problems within the region,” he says.

Another innovator is Allen Marine, based in Sitka.

The family-owned business began as a ship-repair yard. It fixed up a derelict boat and began providing tours. Growing demand led the company to buy, then build more vessels.

Wildlife-viewing excursions expanded to Juneau and Ketchikan, and the company eventually formed its own small cruise line, Alaskan Dream.

Vice President Jamey Cagle says its onboard shops are part of its business plan.

“We try and support and procure as many local products as we can, whether it be the foods on board or the gifts that we sell,” Cagle says. “And we’ve found that to be a very successful program for us. It’s what our customers like to see and the quality’s good.”

Juneau-based Alaskan Brewing Company’s innovation is resisting pressure to grow too fast and create too many products.

Brewing Operations Manager Brandon Smith says the craft beer market has expanded significantly since the company began operations.

“You look at some breweries and they have 60 different products and it gets kind of insane,” he says. “We have a somewhat different philosophy there, that we want to do a smaller number of products very well and not confuse the consumer with the dizzying array of things that we put out.”

The company has also invested time and money into new technology. The most recent innovation is a boiler system that burns spent grain, saving heat and shipping costs.

Another business, Juneau’s Gastineau Guiding, tapped into the cruise-ship excursion market during a time of rapid passenger growth.

Owner Bob Janes says it wasn’t alone. He says his business recognized opposition from residents needed to be addressed.

“We saw tours driving through neighborhoods. People weren’t sure whether the trails were going to be packed with tourists every day. So there was a lot of dissention in Juneau,” he says.

He cites the Tourism Best Management Practices program and similar efforts with reducing conflicts and allowing for smoother growth.

Yet another innovator is a much larger company, Anchorage-based Alaska Communications Systems.

ACS CEO Anand Vadapalli says his company took a new direction by partnering with a longtime competitor.

“For those of you who have been in Alaska at least 10 years or more, you have a sense of the degree of competition and rivalry that exists between ACS and GCI,” Vadapalli says.

“But guess what? Last year, ACS and GCI announced a joint venture to combine our wireless networks together to form the single largest wireless network in the state of Alaska.”

That, he adds, is to compete against telecom giant Verizon, which plans to begin service in the 49th state this year.

University of Alaska Southeast Management School Dean John Blanchard moderated the panel.

“We’ll hopefully be inspired to go and incorporate some of those great those ideas as we move the needle a little bit further in creating innovative ideas for Southeast Alaska,” he says.

Some regional business and government leaders are pursuing such an approach through the Juneau Economic Development Council’s cluster initiative.

The Alaska Senate has passed a bill relaxing state standards for cruise ship wastewater discharge.

The largely party line vote was 14 to 6, with every Democrat except Bethel’s Lyman Hoffman voting against the measure and all Republicans voting for it.

Golovin Democrat Donny Olson is a member of the Republican-led Senate Majority, but voted against the bill. Olson says many people think cruise ships are only an issue in Southeast Alaska. But he says his constituents are concerned the vessels are coming to rural Alaska as well.

“Their concern has been that we’re seeing more and more ships coming down the Northwest Passage, and coming on down through Bering Straits,” Olson said. “And the people from Savoonga, the people from St. Lawrence Island are very concerned about what’s going on and they’re watching this bill very closely.”

House Bill 80 was proposed by the Parnell Administration and had already passed the House. It strips a requirement approved by voters in a 2006 citizen’s initiative that would make cruise ship wastewater meet state water quality standards at the point of discharge. It also allows mixing zones, where multiple ships can dump treated waste in the same area.

Anchorage Republican Cathy Giessel said municipalities and fish processors are allowed to have mixing zones. She argued the state would still hold the cruise industry to high standards.

“The intent of HB80 is to apply a consistent environmental approach to all wastewater discharges in Alaska, cruise ships, municipalities, fish processors and others,” said Giessel.

The bill also passed on a reconsideration vote today. Juneau Senator Dennis Egan – another Democrat who caucuses with the Majority – switched his vote in favor of the bill on reconsideration.

It now goes to Governor Sean Parnell for his signature.

Former state Senator Albert Kookesh was medevaced to Anchorage Monday morning after suffering a heart attack.

His daughter Elaine says the 64-year old Kookesh was in Juneau preparing for a trip out of state, when he called his wife saying he was having chest pains and was going to the hospital. His wife also was in Juneau and was able to fly with him.

He was stabilized and flown to Providence Hospital and Medical Center.

“They’re currently now at Providence. They’re going to go in with a catheter and see where the blockage is,” she said Monday morning.

The eldest daughter of Mr. Kookesh’s five children, Elaine Kookesh says she will travel to Anchorage this evening to be with her dad.

“My sister and I are heading up tonight and then our other sister will head up as soon as she can,” she said. “Just keep us all in your thoughts and prayers. He’s a tough guy and never sits even when he’s sick.”

A Democrat from Angoon, Kookesh served 16 years in total, eight as a representative and eight more as a senator. He was defeated by Sitka Republican Bert Stedman after parts of their Southeast districts were combined during redistricting.

Kookesh is the current chairman of Sealaska’s board of directors and co-chair of the Alaska Federation of Natives board.