Saving Seafood

ALASKA: BBRSDA funding diverts need for Bristol Bay cost recovery fishery, for now

March 31, 2016 — BRISTOL BAY, Alaska — Fishermen and processors aren’t the only ones who rely on Bristol Bay sockeye for part of their annual income. Each summer, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game uses cost recovery fishing to help fund management in Bristol Bay. But this summer, BBRSDA has agreed to pick up the tab to avoid what’s widely seen as an inefficient way of funding management.

In late March, the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association agreed to provide the Alaska Department of Fish and Game with up to $250,000 to replace the need for the cost recovery fishery in Bristol Bay.

BBRSDA President Abe Williams said that while the board is providing funding this year, they have concerns about the long-term plan for funding fisheries management in the region.

“We see the budget of the department of fish and game being stripped, but in turn, they’re being forced to look at options like cost recovery to fund their budget,” Williams said. “I think collectively we need to look at how do we get the message back to the state of Alaska that they need to adequately fund the Department of Fish and Game so they can take care of the management business of the fishery in Bristol bay.”

Read the full story at KDLG

ALASKA: Fishermen, lawmakers weigh in on proposed fish tax increase

February 18, 2016 — JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Fishing industry and lawmakers on Thursday puzzled over the origins of a proposed one percent tax increase in fisheries business taxes and fishery resource landing taxes.

During a hearing on the bill by the House fisheries committee, fishermen testified that they did not understand the origins of the increase. It is expected to raise $18 million in new revenue for the state annually, according to the Department of Revenue. It is one of six proposed industry taxes from Gov. Bill Walker, including increases to mining, motor fuels, alcohol and tobacco taxes.

“Are you telling me that a group of people got behind closed doors and pulled out the dart and the dart board and the dart landed on that increase? Is that what you’re saying?” Rep. Bob Herron, D-Bethel, said after he asked fishermen if they understood how the increases had been calculated. Each said they did not.

In its current form, the bill increases by one percent three different tax rates within the Fisheries Business Tax structure, a tax on direct marketers and the tax on floating processors. It also increases the Fisheries Landing Tax.

The director of the department’s Tax Division, Ken Alper, said he could provide the committee with the model used to determine the proposed tax rate, but he said there had not been a formal study. Leadership in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game was consulted when developing the new tax, Alper said.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at San Francisco Chronicle

Alaska working on flatfish tax fix to capture foregone revenue

December 9, 2015 — A state tax rate glitch let groundfish trawlers off the hook for more than $10 million of fishery taxes in the last half decade, and there’s no concrete fix just yet.

The fishery resource landing tax taxes groundfish based on ex-vessel price. Processors turn flatfish caught as bycatch into low-value fishmeal, so the only known ex-vessel price for certain flatfish species is artificially low. Nine species have this price uncertainty, but most flatfish volume comes from yellowfin sole and Atka mackerel.

By only having an ex-vessel value based on the price paid for bycatch turned into fishmeal, the state has no idea what the ex-vessel value is for the direct flatfish fishery that has annual harvests measured in hundreds of thousands of metric tons.

According to state research estimates, the state has lost out on $1.8 million to $2.5 million per year, or more than $10 million over the last five years. Researchers haven’t yet looked back further due to paucity of data, but the fishery resource landing tax has existed since 1994.

Lori Swanson, assistant executive director of groundfish trawler group Groundfish Forum, did not say whether the industry knew it had been underpaying since the tax’s birth.

“They pay what the state tells them to pay,” she said.

The state doesn’t really know

The Department of Revenue, however, hasn’t been calculating a realistic view of fleet’s tax rate, and is only starting to rework the system. The state began this tax specifically for factory trawlers and catcher-processors, but overlooked a systemic flaw from the beginning.

“It’s actually two things,” said Kurt Iverson, a research analyst with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. “First, a very small amount of the total harvest is in the (Commercial Operator’s Annual Report), and on top of that, that harvest is not representative of a true ex-vessel valuation because it’s coming in as bycatch.”

Anna Kim, the Department of Revenue chief of revenue operations, said she can’t speculate why the issue went for so long without being noticed. Iverson said the problem isn’t intentional. The Department of Revenue simply attached the tax to shoreside sales, which don’t happen for some species.

Read the full story at Alaska Journal of Commerce

 

Alaska Salmon season might miss forecast

August 10, 2015 — The state’s salmon harvest topped 160 million fish over the weekend, but it’s questionable whether the catch will meet preseason expectations.

In Southeast, catches are running well below the forecast set earlier this year. As of Sunday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported 22.6 million salmon caught in Southeast, including only 15 million pink salmon. Heading into the season, the spot forecast called for 58 million pink salmon, and forecasters were 80 percent confident that the harvest would be between 37 million and 79 million fish.

Instead, figures now seem to indicate a harvest below the bottom end of that range.

In an average year, Southeast’s salmon harvest peaks in what ADFG calls “statistical week 32,” or between Aug. 2-8. The five-year average harvest for that week is 11.1 million salmon, mostly pinks, but recent years have been higher. Last year, 12.1 million fish were caught during that period.

Read the full story from Juneau Empire

ALASKA: Fish and Game hiring too many environmentalists, says Alaska state senator

August 6, 2015 — ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten is defending the recent hire of a former employee of the environmental group Oceana following a complaint from a Republican state senator that Cotten’s department is picking new employees from the “injunction industry” — a sarcastic reference to lawsuits filed by advocacy organizations.

Anchorage Sen. Cathy Giessel sent a letter to Cotten last week referring to a “steady stream of personnel changes” at Fish and Game, with replacements coming “overwhelmingly from the conservation advocacy sector.”

“It is my sincere hope that the arrival of individuals who have dedicated a part of their lives in an antagonistic relationship with the state of Alaska is not a reflection of a new philosophy in policy on the part of the department,” said the letter from Giessel, who chairs the Senate’s resources committee and is a mining- and oil-industry booster.

Cotten said in a phone interview Wednesday that he’d been hearing concerns about his department’s recent hiring of Chris Krenz, a former senior scientist at Oceana who worked on the group’s campaign opposing Shell’s oil drilling program in the Arctic.

Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News