January 30, 2025 — A joint legislative task force centered on bolstering Alaska’s seafood industry has forwarded its in-depth report after voting to make its amended version official on Wednesday.
State lawmakers, who shared a draft version of the report earlier this month, are making multiple recommendations to try and alleviate what they called a crisis in our state, citing some 18 different fisheries disasters within the last decade or so.
A National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration report released this past fall showed the seafood industry suffered a $1.8 billion loss from 2022 to 2023 alone, with about $191 million in state and local tax revenues for Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and California combined.
“This gives the public a very pointed direction of what we’re looking at,” said Rep. Sarah Vance, R-Homer, of the task force report. “Now is the time that we have to roll up our sleeves, and develop good policy, and make sure that we are not creating loopholes and missing some things along the way.”