Fisheries

At a legislative committee Thursday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game says it could absorb part of the responsibilities of the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission if it was eliminated.

The House Fisheries Committee heard Kodiak Rep. Louise Stutes’ House Bill 112, which would transfer duties of the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission to the Department of Fish and Game and the Office of Administrative Hearings. Twenty-five full time employees would move to Fish and Game.

Kevin Brooks is Fish and Game deputy commissioner.

“The department believes that we could make this work without service degradation to commercial fishermen. I think that’s important. Issuing permits, doing emergency transfers, those types of things,” Brooks says.

The CFEC is responsible for deciding what commercial fisheries to limit, who gets to participate in them and adjudicating appeal cases. It also issues permits and licenses, which bring in the majority of the agency’s revenue.

This is not the first time a lawmaker has tried to eliminate the CFEC. Homer Rep. Paul Seaton first introduced a similar bill at the end of the last legislative session and initiated a legislative audit.

Fish and Game conducted its own review that came out in February. It made several recommendations and highlighted some inefficiencies, like a backlog of 28 application cases more than 15 years old.

Sitka Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins sits on the fisheries committee.

“There seems to be some stubborn resistance getting to the number zero with that backlog. The backlog is low, but it doesn’t seem to be working its way down, at least quickly. And just put directly, why has the backlog not been worked through?” Kreiss-Tomkins asks.

CFEC Chair Bruce Twomley says he and the other two commissioners adjudicated 143 cases last year, mostly permit transfers. He says they are committed to finishing the backlogged cases in 2016.

Stutes’ bill would do away with the agency’s three heads and add an executive director, saving $424,000, according to a Fish and Game estimate.

The House Fisheries Committee will take public testimony on the bill to eliminate CFEC Thursday at 10 a.m. As of Friday, at least two letters of opposition have come from the fishing community, including the United Southeast Alaska Gillnetters Association.

Alaska Congressman Don Young has introduced a bill to reauthorize the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the nation’s primary law governing fishing in federal waters. It leaves fisheries managers some controversial wiggle room.

Previous versions of the law established eight regional councils and required them to set harvest limits based on science to end overfishing. The mechanism is known as the “Alaska Model” of fisheries management.

Young’s bill, though, introduces some flexibility for fisheries managers. Among other changes, it would allow councils to consider a community’s economic need when setting an annual catch limit, and it would allow a more elastic timeline for rebuilding depleted stocks. Spokesman Matt Shuckerow says the provision is intended for regions elsewhere in the country that don’t have enough scientific data.

“We don’t anticipate that changes will be made for the North Pacific Council,” Shuckerow said. “The North Pacific Council is still considered to be the premiere model of fisheries management and it has generally worked very well”

Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is among those pressing for greater flexibility, saying it’s in his state’s interest.

The bill would also require Alaska’s governor to consult subsistence stakeholders before nominating people to the council, and it says subsistence expertise can qualify a person as a nominee. But it does not add a subsistence seat to the North Pacific Council, as some Alaska tribes requested. Shuckerow says Young hasn’t ruled out the idea, but if Alaska adds a subsistence seat, Washington State will want to add to its
delegation on the council also.

“That’s something, like I said, we’re weighing heavily,” Shuckerow said. “And also, this is a starting point. The bill is not set in stone.”

Linda Behnken, executive director of Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, says she appreciates Young’s work on the bill, but she’s troubled by the flexibility provisions.

“We can’t support the bill as he’s introduced it,” she said. “Mostly because the bill weakens protections for fish. We think at this point it’s incredibly important to hold on to the progress that’s been made from the past reauthorization to end over-fishing.”

Behnken says Alaska’s commitment to science-based fisheries management is strong, so she doesn’t see the North Pacific Council changing its approach. But her group has been working in a coalition with small-boat commercial fisherman from New England and the Southeast, and they don’t see flexibility as a benefit to their fishing communities. Besides, Behnken says, over-fishing in waters off the Lower 48 can hurt Alaska, too.

“Anything that happens in this country that undermines that success, yeah, I think it hurts all the fisheries of this country, hurts the marketability of our fish in the global market that increasingly cares about sustainably harvesting resources.” Behnken said.

Young is in charge of House version of the fisheries bill, which will be marked up in the House Natural Resources Committee.

The federal government can once again continue processing H-2b visas, the program that traditionally allows foreign roe technicians to work in Alaska seafood plants.

Whether the visas would be available for the summer season was unclear after a court challenge in Florida. But the judge’s decision in that case is now on hold until mid-April. Dennis Phelan of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association says that should be enough time to move this summer’s visas along. Phelan says Alaska’s 100-million-dollar roe industry depends on the H-2b visas.

“There’s probably only 100 of them that we’re bringing over, but it’s crucial employees because they are the representatives on the ground for the folks who are buying the product, in most cases Japanese companies,” Phelan said.

Phelan’s trade association represents nine companies with about 25 processing plants around Alaska. H2-B visas are intended for seasonal non-farm workers. To qualify, employers have to show they can’t fill the positions with U.S. workers. Last year, H2-bs for Alaska jobs were primarily for roe technicians, but several dozen also went to bolster the sales force at jewelry stores in Southeast Alaska that cater to cruise ship passengers. Phelan says his association is still trying to get the industry back in the J-1 visa program, which used to allow thousands of foreign students to come to Alaska to work in processing jobs.

Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest has a new top official.

Earl Stewart will take over as forest supervisor beginning in May. He will replace Forrest Cole, who is retiring after more than 40 years with the Forest Service.

Stewart is based in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he’s in charge of the Coconino National Forest. He’s never been to the Tongass.

He says he looks forward to overseeing America’s largest national forest, while understanding it attracts frequent attention.

“For me it’s that one opportunity to engage at a level that is far higher than what I’ve had … in the past, to develop new relationships and to expand horizons,” Stewart says.

Stewart’s future boss, Alaska Regional Forester Beth Pendleton, says he’ll be a good fit.

“He brings a wide range of experience and leadership to this position and has a great understanding of the unique relationships that communities have with their national forests, which will suit Alaskans well,” she says.

Stewart’s earlier posts were in Montana, Alabama and Washington, D.C. He began his Forest Service career in 1991, after working as a biologist for Oklahoma’s Department of Wildlife Conservation.

He says he knows the Tongass is different – and that he has a lot to learn.

“I’m going to approach it from a very eyes-wide-open manner, to seek to understand and interpret. And then try to assist in a much more collaborative way than what my experience has been in other situations,” Stewart says.

Stewart says he’s overseen timber harvests, including second-growth, and forest restoration projects.

He will take over Tongass operations as the agency maps out a transition from old-growth to young-growth logging.

It also faces ongoing legal challenges to its timber sales. And it’s adjusting to Sealaska’s takeover of 70,000 acres, including prime timberlands.

Two environmental organizations quickly welcomed Stewart to the Tongass.

“We are encouraged by Stewart’s background as a biologist and his experience leading collaborative restoration projects in other regions of the country that are well suited to meeting the unique needs of southeast Alaska,” says Mark Kaelke, Trout Unlimited’s Southeast Alaska project director.

The executive director of the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council invited Stewart to join her for a fishing trip in Petersburg.

“We look forward to introducing him to our unique way of life in Southeast Alaska and working with him to chart a prosperous and resilient future for our communities,” says Malena Marvin.

 

One of Petersburg’s seafood processors is trying to see if there’s a market for their small shrimping operation.

Shrimping used to be a robust industry in Petersburg. The state’s first shrimp plant started there in 1916, but the market ceased being profitable and the last plant closed down ten years ago.

Still, co-owner of the local seafood processor Tonka Seafoods, Seth Scrimsher, says the product is special.

“There are very few cold water shrimp left in the world,” Scrimsher says. “It’s mostly warm water shrimp or farmed shrimp. And the cold water shrimp is known for a sweeter flavor.”

Tonka Seafoods is a locally owned business located just outside of downtown Petersburg and they think they may have found a new shrimp market in Iceland and England.

“We need to see if we can freeze them fast enough and maintain the quality and ship it to the buyer as cheaply as possible to work under their budget constraints,” Scrimsher says.

Although there is a strong domestic market for pink shrimp, Tonka doesn’t have the equipment to process it yet but Scrimsher says with luck, that could one day be happening too.

 

The Alaska Board of Fisheries closed some waters near Angoon to purse seining in order to improve subsistence harvests, in action over the weekend.

They also shot down the use of unmanned aircraft to aid in salmon fishing.

The closure was intended to improve access to sockeye salmon in freshwater systems important to the subsistence harvest in Angoon.

During committee work earlier in the week, Angoon residents spoke passionately about the impact of low sockeye availability, and subsistence harvest limits often as low as 15 fish.

Alaska Department of Fish & Game staff initially opposed Proposal 193, because it would limit their flexibility to manage the seine fishery.

However, the stakeholders were able to put together a compromise that permanently closed waters that the department routinely closed by emergency order.

Board member Sue Jeffrey acknowledged the effort.

“You know, I’m in support of this. This is exactly what we appreciate, when the opposing parties come together and find a solution that works for everyone.”

Subsistence sockeye fishing in Angoon came into the spotlight in 2009 when then-state senator Albert Kookesh — an Alaska Native and lifetime Angoon resident — was cited by troopers for overfishing his permit. The charges were later dismissed.

But many other proposals did not fly — literally — in board deliberations on Sunday — namely, Proposal 204, which would have banned the use of spotter planes during seine openings for salmon. Given the number of small aircraft in use in Southeast Alaska, Department of Public Safety representatives thought enforcing a ban would be very difficult. They referred to the proposal as “a solution looking for a problem.”

The Board rejected the proposed ban on spotter planes.

Drones, however, were not so lucky. Proposal 205 would ban the use of unmanned aircraft in salmon fisheries.

Member Reed Morisky and chairman Tom Klubertson framed the board’s anti-drone position.

Moriskiy – I’m for keeping pilots employed, and not using unmanned aircraft for fish spotting.

Klubertson – Thank you. I tend to look very hard at existing patterns of areas and fisheries, and I do like — whenever possible — to promote economic stability. We’ve had aircraft in this region for a long time. There are folks who stake their livelihoods, and contribute to local economies flying their aircraft. I feel it’s just an unnecessary move, and as Member Jeffrey said, it’s not something I want over my head.

Strictly speaking, the Board of Fish lacks jurisdiction over aircraft use. But it can — and did — ban the use of drones to aid in in all commercial salmon fishing.