Fisheries

Commercial fishing groups are pushing back against a proposed ballot initiative that would ban a sector of their industry.

Fish politics can be messy stuff. They’re complicated; they’re emotional, and there’s a lot of money involved. Now that a group with ties to the sportfishing lobby is trying to put the existence of the Cook Inlet setnet fishery to a vote, fish politics are being taken to their messy extreme.

When the initiative application was filed last week, commercial fishing groups were mostly quiet. Now, they’re issuing full-throated denunciations of the move to prohibit set-netting in urban areas. “Theatrics and political games” is how the United Fishermen of Alaska — or UFA — is describing it. The Alaska Salmon Alliance — another trade group — has called the initiative a “public relations scam” meant to pressure the Legislature into giving sport and personal-use fishermen more access to Kenai River king salmon.

Andy Hall directs the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association, and he thinks the initiative is more about allocation of fish than conservation:

“They’re down in the Legislature trying to get somebody kicked of the Board of Fish, or eavesdropping on the UFA annual meeting, or, you know, kicking off some initiative to put a bunch of people out of business. That’s not conservation. Maybe they’re conserving an opportunity for themselves to partake of, but, boy, I don’t see any king salmon conservation.”

Conservation groups also question the motives of the initiative sponsors. Cook Inletkeeper’s Bob Shavelson says the group behind the initiative hasn’t reached out to him, and that they would be focusing more on habitat measures if they were concerned about improving the fishery. Shavelson also worries about having fisheries management decided by a public vote instead of going through the established process.

“I think it’s a horrible precedent. I think it’s people who have money and political influence trying to drive their agenda in a way that is totally outside the science basis where we should be making decisions.”

Sponsors of the initiative have used their own searing rhetoric to describe their goals. Joe Connors, who is heading up the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance has described set-netters as creating a “wall of death” that is crippling the king salmon stock. This past year, commercial fishermen took 1,800 kings bound for the Kenai River. Sportfishermen took about 1,600, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

The Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance turned in their ballot application to the Division of Elections last week. If their application is approved, they would have to go through a long signature campaign before earning a spot on the 2016 primary ballot.

KDLL’s Shaylon Cochran contributed reporting to this story.

A major commercial fishing organization is pushing for more funding to put seafood on school lunch tables.

The United Fishermen of Alaska’s Board of Directors set that as a priority during its recent meeting in Sitka.

UFA Executive Director Julianne Curry says it’s part of a larger program that sends a variety of Alaska-grown products to schools.

“The overall priority is looking for ways to be able to promote not only Alaska-produced products, but also seafood to Alaskans. Getting seafood into the schools in Alaska is a big priority for a lot of our school districts and we’re looking for any way that we can that supports any program that works,” Curry says.

She says the organization will lobby the Legislature to make funding a regular part of the state budget.

UFA President Jerry McCune says the board will also advocate for continued funding for important state agencies.

“We’re always looking to keep Fish and Game’s budget at least up some or status quo. Because it’s costing more and more and we’re losing a lot of the older folks that know a lot about the department right now,” he says.

UFA is also looking at appropriations for hatcheries and the fight against invasive species.

Curry says it may also propose changes to the state panel fishermen deal with most.

“Something that we are actively seeking to improve is the board of fish process itself and look and see if there are any efficiencies that can be gained. And make sure that we are adequately considering the input from the public and that the meetings are accessible and that we’re really getting the best input that we possibly can,” Curry says.

The United Fishermen of Alaska is an umbrella organization of about 35 commercial fishing and processing groups.

The Legislature begins its 2014 meetings on January 21st. It’s the second year of the 28th legislative session, so bills proposed last year are still in play.

Between oil taxes, marijuana regulation, mining, and the minimum wage, there’s a mess of ballot issues that Alaskans will have to decide on next summer. But a group of sportfishermen and guides is already looking toward 2016. They’ve introduced an initiative that would ban commercial set-net operations in the state’s urban areas, including Cook Inlet. APRN’s Alexandra Gutierrez reports.

Joe Connors operates a charter outfit on the Kenai Peninsula. His Big Sky Fishcamp has lots of amenities. There are cabins with names like “the Hawaiian Hut” and the “Hacienda of Happy Jose.” But the big attraction is obviously the fishing. If you go to Connors’ website, you’ll see photos of massive king salmon caught by proud clients.

There’s just one big snag with his operation. In recent years, he’s had fewer kings to fish. With lower returns, the state has had to put fishing limits on the valuable stock.

“You couldn’t troll out off the mouth of the Deep Creek or Anchor or Ninilchik [Rivers]. That was closed,” says Connors. “In the river, they had us fishing with single hook, no bait, and restricted to the lower 10 miles of the river.”

Now, Connors is heading up a new group called the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance, and their goal is to shut down the commercial set-net fishery in the area.

That user group catches fish by anchoring nets to the shore. While the set-netters mostly target red salmon, they also take some kings. This year, they ended up with about 5,000 kings in their nets. Sportfishermen got a fraction of that.

Connors thinks the impact on the king run is too much, so the Alliance is pushing an initiative that would ban all commercial set netting in urban regions. He points to bans on the method in other states, and says it’s not an allocation issue but a conservation one. He adds that the state has not been doing its job in preserving the king stock.

“The Board of Fish and Game gets deluded by the need to continue the set-net fishery because it’s a way of life, you know, whatever, whatever. But the bottom line indicates — all the indicators — we have historically low numbers, and we cannot continue to have this wall of death functioning.”

The Alliance submitted their initiative application to the Alaska Division of Elections today. If the initiative passes legal review, the group would then have to collect signatures from 10 percent of the electorate to get on the ballot.

Set-netters in Bristol Bay, Kodiak, and along the Alaska Peninsula would not be targeted by the proposed ban, and neither would subsistence fisheries. And while the ban would apply to places like Fairbanks and Juneau, the Kenai Peninsula would see the greatest impact.

There are 750 set-net permits issued for the Cook Inlet region, with an estimated value of $10 million. While the initiative has language giving a rationale for the ban, it doesn’t say anything about what would happen to those permits. Connors says that the possibility of a buyback is something that could be worked out later.

“There might be discussion to that effect,” says Connors. That’s something that the public would have to decide if they want to have that discussion in the state also.”

Connors says he wants that discussion to happen over the course of a few years, which is why his group isn’t doing a major signature rush to get on the 2014 primary ballot. They’ve hired a public relations firm, and they plan to run a “voter education” effort. They also want to give the legislature some time to consider their proposal before it would actually go out to a vote.

“You can’t have an initiative process without allowing the Legislature to consider all these options also,” says Connors. “By going through the initiative process, we’re opening all of these other options. Whether the appropriate people step up and deal with it, we’ll see.”

The sportfishing lobby is a serious force in the state, and the Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance includes one of its most powerful players. Bob Penney, a Anchorage developer and major political funder, has already begun sending letters to legislators explaining the reason for this initiative. Earlier this year, a group he founded — the Kenai River Sportfishing Association — ran a successful campaign to unseat one of the governor’s appointees to the Board of Fish.

The initiative caught many set-netters by surprise. A spokesperson for the Kenai Peninsula Fishermen’s Association, which represents many of the area’s commercial fishermen, said they were “looking at the proposal and will have a response in the next day or two.”

Soldotna Sen. Peter Micciche was out of town on personal business Wednesday, but said he’s “going to continue to do what I need to do to protect all the fisheries in Cook Inlet. They’re all extremely important to our economy, to our recreation and to our way of life. I’m going to be active in the struggle to understand the importance of all our fisheries.”

This is the first citizen effort in Alaska to ban a gear-type via ballot. In 1995, an initiative to prioritize personal use over commercial fishing was introduced, but it did not come to a vote.

KDLL’s Shaylon Cochran and APRN’s Lori Townsend contributed reporting to this story.

The United Fishermen of Alaska’s Board of Directors is meeting in Sitka this week.

President Jerry McCune says the board will work on priorities for legislative and government-agency action.

“We’re always looking for little tweaks in the (state) Division of Investments or things that would be more helpful to fishermen for their loans, especially with a lot of young folks getting online now,” McCune says. “That was one of the reasons we fought so hard to up the (loan) limit for permits to $200,000, because prices nowadays are a lot higher today than when it started out.”

The United Fishermen of Alaska is an umbrella organization of about 35 commercial fishing and processing groups.

McCune is also president of Cordova District Fishermen United.

He says the UFA board will discuss Alaska Board of Fisheries appointments. It’s been a hotbed of controversy over the balance among gear-group, subsistence and sport representatives.

“Right now it’s pretty much up to the governor to pick who’s going to be on the board of fish. Sometimes you end up with really, really good board members and other times people realize it’s way over their heads with what they’re talking about statewide,” he says.

Some governors’ nominations have been blocked by the Legislature.

The UFA board meets Oct. 23-25 at Sitka’s Harrigan Centennial Hall.

The organization won’t take up election endorsements during this meeting.

Board President McCune says it’s too early because the latest redistricting plan is being challenged in court.

“Of course that might be just down in Southeast and north. But it would make a change in who’s running against who and who would end up where. So I don’t think we’ll probably bring up any of that until (next) fall,” he says

The UFA is urging its members and others in the business to attend another meeting later this month.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is holding its “All Hands” Meeting October 28th through 30th in Anchorage.

It will include updates on marketing efforts as well as species-specific sessions.

• Read the All Hands agenda.