Saving Seafood

Alaska seafood marketing arm hopes to finally benefit from federal pandemic relief dollars

May 18, 2021 — Alaska’s lone seafood marketing arm gets zero budget from the state and to date has received no pandemic funds.

The Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute is hoping to get a breather from the more than $1 billion coming to Alaska in the latest round of federal relief dollars under the American Rescue Plan (ARP).

The influx also provides $518 million of nondiscretionary funds to Alaska and $220 million for public health and safety, workforce development, education, transportation and emergency management.

ASMI put in a $20 million request two months ago, but Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy made no mention of it in mid-April when he released his proposals for the ARP money nor anything since.

Dunleavy did include $150 million for Alaska Tourism Revitalization, citing the need for “industry relief to promote tourism and adapt services for potential loss of cruise ship season.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Alaska’s Commercial Fisheries Division appears to be escaping budget cuts

May 4, 2021 — The budget for Alaska’s Commercial Fisheries Division won’t be cut for the upcoming fiscal year, assuming the current numbers make it through the Legislature.

“The governor’s proposed budget is at about $72.8 million, which is a slight increase from the FY21 approved budget. And most of that increase is due to our personnel services, cost of living increases and things like that that are funded by the administration generally. And also from some additional federal funds for training and things like that. So we’re looking pretty good compared to past years,” said Sam Rabung, director of the Commercial Fisheries Division, the largest within the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which employs just over 640 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers.

“We’re really relieved because we’ve been cut pretty close to the bone and any additional significant cuts would impact fisheries directly. We wouldn’t be able to do some of the assessment projects required for management and we would have to either close or severely restrict fisheries. And I think everybody understands that,” he said, adding that another bonus will be the reopening of the ADF&G office at Wrangell.

Rabung credited the Dunleavy administration for taking the time to dig into the details that clearly show Alaska’s fisheries “pay their own way.”

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Alaska suggests opening part of Kachemak Bay to subsurface gas leasing

April 30, 2021 — Oil and gas leasing isn’t allowed in Kachemak Bay. The state blocked development there after an oil rig got stuck and leaked oil into the bay in 1976.

But legislation proposed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy would allow the state to sell subsurface gas-only leases in part of Kachemak Bay, so oil and gas companies could drill into undersea reservoirs from miles away.

More broadly, the bill would permit subsurface leasing and drilling where surface drilling is currently prohibited. And the bill’s opponents say that would unravel state restrictions meant to protect wildlife.

Haley Paine, deputy director of the Alaska Division of Oil and Gas, told the House Fisheries Committee the point of the legislation is to capture royalties for the state.

Read the full story at KDLL

ALASKA: ADF&G Commissioner Addresses Disaster Relief, Cook Inlet Closure, Large Salmon Forecast for 2021

April 1, 2021 — Alaska’s Governor Mike Dunleavy has received 11 requests for fisheries disaster declarations, said Doug Vincent-Lange, Alaska’s Commissioner of Fish and Game, in an update at the Kodiak Chamber of Commerce’s ComFish Expo.

Noting the good news of over half of Alaska’s population now vaccinated, and shots now available for anyone over 16, Vincent-Lange said, “I don’t see why you wouldn’t all be able to fish this year.”

Read the full story at Seafood News

GOV. DUNLEAVY: Secretary Blinken, protect Alaska’s fisheries

March 18, 2021 — Dear Secretary of State Blinken,

In light of your imminent meeting with Chinese officials in Alaska, I write to impress upon you the international challenges faced by our commercial fishing industry.

Perhaps no group of Alaskans has been impacted more severely by the global economic collapse than our fishers and processors. Both coped admirably with the logistical challenges of running businesses that rely on the free movement of labor, but neither escaped the pain of demand shock that rippled outward from shuttered restaurants, reductions in consumer spending, and the partial collapse of many export markets.

However, not all of the industries’ woes can be traced back to the pandemic. Many are preexisting conditions stemming from hostile decisions made by China and Russia during the previous decade.

In July 2018, China’s government imposed retaliatory tariffs on Alaska seafood, decimating our market share in the world’s largest and fastest-growing seafood market. Today, these tariffs have reached an outrageous 30-40% on top of several extreme and unproven COVID-mitigation measures intended to slow the importation of Alaska seafood.

Read the full opinion piece at the Juneau Empire

ALASKA: Board of Fish bumps back meeting schedule citing cost concerns, public outcry

March 9, 2021 — Alaska’s Board of Fisheries has bumped its meeting cycle back a year after cost concerns and public outcry. Commercial fishing interests had raised concerns that a packed schedule wouldn’t give stakeholders a fair amount of time with the board.

Alaska’s Board of Fish is a seven-member board of citizens appointed by the governor. They make critical decisions about the whos, whats and whens of access to the state’s fisheries.

COVID-19 caused Board of Fish meetings to be postponed, including its regional meeting for Southeast. In January, the board voted to cram two years’ worth of meetings into the next meeting cycle. That would’ve effectively doubled the amount of meetings this year.

The vast majority of public and advisory committee comments received in recent months raised concerns about the doubled schedule.

On Monday, the Dunleavy administration also weighed in. Fish & Game commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang says his agency does not have the budget for twice the meeting load.

“Right now we do not have money to double up on in-person meetings next year,” Vincent-Lang said. “I can tell you it’s my intent not to rob Peter to pay Paul to double up on meetings. I’m not going to dig into the department budget at a half-million dollars to fund those meetings.”

Read the full story at KSTK

Army Corps accepts appeal from developer of proposed Pebble mine but rejects Alaska’s appeal

March 2, 2021 — The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has accepted an appeal request from the developer of the proposed Pebble copper and gold mine in Southwest Alaska, keeping alive the company’s hopes that it could one day see the project developed after the Corps denied the project a key permit last year.

The Corps also rejected the state of Alaska’s request for an appeal, prompting a response from Gov. Mike Dunleavy, who said that the rejection sets a precedent that could put other projects on state land at risk.

“This is another example of the federal government imposing a flawed decision that blocks Alaska’s ability to responsibly develop its land and resources,” Dunleavy said in a statement issued Friday.

The Corps’ Alaska District in November, under then-President Donald Trump, denied a permit for the project, calling it “contrary to the public interest.”

Read the full story at Anchorage Daily News

Tribes, fishermen decry Alaska and B.C.’s decision not to extend transboundary monitoring

March 2, 2021 — A 22-page final report released on Thursday culminates two years of data collected from water, sediment and fish tissue in three transboundary watersheds that straddle the frontier. And now, Alaska and British Columbia governments say their work is done.

“Given the existence of other sampling programs planned by state, federal or provincial agencies throughout the transboundary region, there is no need to continue the joint program,” the state and province said in a joint-statement.

Congress appropriated more than $3 million for renewed stream monitoring at border stream gauges operated by the U.S. Geological Survey.

“With all the resources didn’t feel like it was necessary for multiple agencies to be collecting the same thing,” Terri Lomax, a program manager with the state Department of Conservation, told CoastAlaska.

She’s been part of the cross-border effort ever since Gov. Bill Walker signed a landmark agreement in 2015 with B.C. to set up joint water quality monitoring for a shared watershed that hosts a booming Canadian mining sector that drains into Southeast Alaska.

“We’ve developed a lot of partnerships and a lot of relationships over the last couple of years,” she said. “We didn’t have these relationships with British Columbia.”

Provincial officials say they agree that the program has run its course.

Read the full story at KRBD

ALASKA: Gov. Dunleavy taps real estate executive for fisheries commission

February 19, 2021 — The Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission is obscure to many Alaskans. But for those whose livelihoods are tied to fish, it’s a household name.

The agency was created in the 1970s after Alaska voters amended the state constitution to allow limits on the number of people allowed to fish — all for the sake of conservation. Fishermen had to show a history of their catch in a particular area to get rights to fish.

“The commission spent many, many years going through those applications, sorting through the permits,” said Juneau attorney and former lobbyist Vance Fate Putman, who former Gov. Bill Walker appointed to the two-person commission in 2017.

That work of documenting who did and didn’t get fishing rights took decades, but it’s finally done. Over the past few years, the commission has resolved all but one dispute: an excess of eligible permit holders for a single shrimp pot fishery in Southeast.

Read the full story at KTOO

Alaska’s US attorney is investigating something about Pebble, but the target is unclear

February 10, 2021 — The parent company of the proposed Pebble Mine said it’s cooperating with a federal grand jury investigation. The company said the case relates to conversations about the mine that were secretly recorded. But who is being investigated, and for what alleged crime, is not clear.

The company, British Columbia-based Northern Dynasty, issued a statement Friday that leaves a lot unanswered. It said the U.S. Attorney’s office in Alaska issued subpoenas to Pebble Limited Partnership and its former CEO, Tom Collier, requiring them to hand over certain documents.

The statement said the investigation appears related to “previously disclosed recordings of private conversations regarding the Pebble Project.”

That seems to describe the so-called Pebble Tapes, undercover recordings produced last year by an environmental group.

Read the full story at Alaska Public Media