ALASKA: May 27, 2015 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council will spend the first four days of its weeklong meeting in Sitka beginning June 3 deciding on a series of deep cuts in the halibut bycatch allocation for the Bering Sea groundfish bottom-trawl fleet, but it may do so without a majority of the votes on the final decision coming from the Alaska delegation.
The council, which has 11 members with six appointed from Alaska, could hold a final vote without two Alaska members, David Long and Simon Kinneen, unless the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, reconsiders its decision to recommend them for recusal.
The council is considering cuts of up to 50 percent to the current annual bycatch allocation of 7.8 million pounds to the Amendment 80 fleet, a group of about 18 catcher-processor trawlers that harvest flatfish species.
Kinneen and Long were both recommended for recusal from the final vote on May 12 by the council’s designated NOAA General Counsels, Lauren Smoker and John Lepore, in consultation with the Department of Commerce Office of the General Counsel, Ethics Law and Programs Division.
Kinneen was recused from the June meeting based on the fishing interests employer, the Norton Sound Economic Development Corp., or NSEDC.
NSEDC is one of six Community Development Quota groups made up of 65 Western Alaska villages that collectively receive 10 percent of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands harvest.
NSEDC also owns subsidiaries that collectively harvest more than 435.6 million pounds, or 10 percent of the groundfish harvest. NSEDC wholly owns Siu Alaska Corp., which partially owns Glacier Fish Co., BSAI Partners LLC, and Glacier Bay Fisheries LLC. Glacier Fish is part owner of Iquique U.S. LLC.
Read the full story at the Alaska Journal of Commerce