Legislature(1997 - 1998)
05/07/1997 03:50 PM Senate RES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 141 SCALLOP FISHERY/ VESSEL MORATORIUM
CHAIRMAN HALFORD announced HB 141 to be up for consideration.
MS. AMY DOUGHERTY, Aide to Representative Austerman, sponsor of HB
141, read the sponsor statement. She said it implements a
moratorium within the State waters off Alaska. Without it, it is
probable that there would be an increase in effort on the scallop
stocks, as well as the associated marine habitat, and create an
unmanageable fishery. She had reviewed the committee's amendments
which she found acceptable.
SENATOR SHARP asked if this was establishing sort of a limited
entry situation. CHAIRMAN HALFORD replied yes and no; the
moratorium is a kind of starting point. He said two amendments
deal with how the system works and who gets in under the
moratorium. The third one deals with at least instructing the
Commission to look at a way to avoid transfer of permits and permit
values.
SENATOR LINCOLN said she would like to hear how the amendments are
incorporated into the bill because they make substantial changes.
MR. DALE ANDERSON, Limited Entry Commission, said that the
Commission found that the findings listed in this bill provide
grounds to implement a moratorium and they are ready to administer
it, if the legislature signs it into law.
MR. EARL KRYGIER, Extended Jurisdiction Program Manager, said he
basically deals with the federal issues that interact with the
State fisheries. He explained that the scallop fishery started in
1967 when a number (17) of boats came in from the east coast and
they fished them up and down. He said that scallop fisheries are
very susceptible to overfishing. We don't have a very large
harvest in Alaska and the average harvest has been around a million
pounds of shucked meat. On the east coast it's about 30 million
pounds annually. We have also had problems with some of the beds
being depressed.
Back in 1990 when we started to get a new influx of fishermen
interested in the fishery, they became concerned when they saw the
same thing starting to occur. They put together a management plan
that was done by the Board of Fisheries that was very restrictive.
Instead of having a statewide registration, they broke it up into
nine separate areas. The beds don't move around and you can
separate the main beds into separate management units for a
sustainable harvest, MR. KRYGIER said. That was fine until a Mr.
Big, a vessel from the east coast, decided to go out and fish in
federal waters only and didn't sign up for his State registration
that year. They had always been able to manage the fisheries
because any vessel that had signed a State registration has to
abide by their regulations when they fish in federal waters. In
federal waters there aren't any regulations.
Mr. Big was fishing in federal waters without any limits and the
State went to the Council and had them shut down. To do that they
had to make a federal fishery management plan which closed all
federal waters for 18 months. So the rest of the vessels who
weren't participating in the unregulated fishery were basically out
of business for that time. The federal government tried to figure
out how to return this back to the State for management and put in
place an interim plan which adopted all the State regulations. The
State calls all the shots, but it is very cumbersome and they are
trying to get a final solution which would turn the fishery back to
the State.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said he was actually concerned about the bottom
and asked how the dredges worked. MR. KRYGIER explained that they
have a metal ring bag with four inch diameter rings which basically
allows it to sort out the undersized scallops and allows them to
remain on the beds and grow. They pull them back and forth across
the beds. Various beds have sandy bottoms and there is very low
interaction with anything; almost no bycatch. They have observers
on all of the vessels in federal waters.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked what kept the bottom fish from going into
the same dredge. MR. KRYGIER said they trawl at a very slow rate.
There are some problems with crab and they manage these areas by
the crab bycatch rate, setting very conservative rates annually
that they can take, less than half a percent.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if the bycatch came up or did it just get
killed and stay on the bottom. MR. KRYGIER said most of it comes
up and there's a very high survival rate on the halibut. The rates
on the other flat fish is quite small, also.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if ADF&G was certain that this type of
fishery is not doing any damage to other species. MR. KRYGIER
replied that he did research at Oregon State University as an
oceanographer and he felt that they had to be very concerned about
the impacts on the habitat. Most all areas are excluded from
dredging.
SENATOR TAYLOR asked if he was familiar with a type of trawl
developed by a Mr. Kirkness. MR. KRYGIER replied that he was.
SENATOR TAYLOR said that it didn't have the bycatch problem, but he
can't use it because it doesn't comply with existing regulations.
MR. KRYGIER responded that they had offered the gentleman a number
of experimental permits to prove up his gear. SENATOR TAYLOR said
the problem he had was that the cost of proving up involved the
observer and some of the rest of it and he didn't have the funds.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked if would be able to do it at all if they
passed the moratorium. SENATOR TAYLOR replied no. MR. KRYGIER
said they have tried to work with him for a number of years and
offered lots of opportunities and have been unsuccessful.
Number 522
SENATOR LINCOLN asked who pays for the observers on all the
vessels. MR. KRYGIER replied that the vessels on the outside coast
pay for all the observer coverage which is about $6,000 per month
for a full time observer. In area H, Cook Inlet, the department
does not require full-time coverage. Staff volunteers its own time
to go out and act as observers.
SENATOR LINCOLN asked if that meant that state workers take time
off from their jobs to observe. MR. KRYGIER said that he
understands in the Cook Inlet area some of it has been on State
time and some of it has been on weekends. The outside waters are
managed by the Board of Fisheries so that the observer coverage is
paid by the catcher processors. They do their work at sea so
observers are needed to get biological data.
Number 559
SENATOR TAYLOR asked why the Korean Hair Crab was being deleted.
MR. ANDERSON explained that this bill mirrors the moratorium on
Korean Hair Crab that was passed and they are deleting "Korean Hair
Crab" and inserting "a fishery" which would include both. He said
that these are the only two fisheries that have vessel permitting.
TAPE 97-32, SIDE B
MR. KRYGIER said the department has a fairly good understanding of
the commercially healthy beds from data gathered from a number of
fisheries over the years.
SENATOR LEMAN asked how large the scallop vessels are. MR. KRYGIER
replied that there are two vessels at 63 feet and two vessels at 79
feet and probably none of those vessels would go into the Bering
Sea where the beds are way off shore. It was both a summer and
winter fishery, but now they are making the opening on July 1
through October or November.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked what the feds do if they don't pass this
bill. MR. KRYGIER replied that the Council is scheduled to take up
scallops again at their September meeting and they will try to set
up delegating the authority for the whole fishery back to the
State. The second thing they had on the agenda was whether or not
to move along with the license program.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD asked what he thought of the amendments. MR.
KRYGIER said they would have no problem managing the fishery with
those amendments.
SENATOR TORGERSON moved amendment #1. SENATOR LINCOLN objected fo
discussion.
MR. BRETT HUBER, Staff to the Senate Resources Committee, said that
amendment #1 allows the vessels that qualify in the Area H waters
of Cook Inlet to also be permitted for the statewide waters. There
are seven boats that qualify, two of which are Alaska vessels, five
of which are not. Four vessels qualify in the Cook Inlet area, all
of which are Alaskan vessels. This would allow those 11 boats to
fish in the statewide waters.
SENATOR LINCOLN said they have to have at least 1,000 pounds for
'95 and '96 and at least four 1,000 pounds between '84 and '96 and
asked if they would all meet that standard. MR. ANDERSON said yes,
SENATOR LINCOLN withdrew her objection to amendment #1 and it was
adopted.
SENATOR TORGERSON moved to adopt amendment #2. MR. HUBER explaine
that the bill currently drafted deals with a vessel permit and the
only way you can change a vessel you are using in the permit is if
the vessel is damaged or sunk. This amendment offers the
opportunity for someone to change a vessel to use in the fishery,
but it would still preclude the vessel being any longer than the
vessel they qualified with or having more horse power.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD noted there were no objections to amendment # 2
and it was adopted.
SENATOR TORGERSON moved to adopt amendment # 3. SENATOR LINCOLN
asked for an explanation. MR. HUBER said it asks the commission in
cooperation with the department to determine whether there's an
alternative form of limited entry that would concentrate on non-
transferable permits. CHAIRMAN HALFORD noted there were no
objections and amendment # 3 was adopted.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD noted that amendment # 2 limited the ability of
the small boats, where most Alaskans are, to upgrade in size. They
wanted to limit the horse power to impact the size dredge they
could handle and asked if that was consistent with the goal of
maximizing Alaskan participation.
MR. ANDERSON responded that one of the goals of the limited entry
commission is to restrict an existing problem so that it doesn't
get any worse. MR. HUBER pointed out that adoption of the
amendment didn't do that, but the text of the bill already had that
limitation of horse power and size.
MR. KRYGIER said the moratorium on the east coast had a larger
effect on the upgrading of the bigger boats and kept them from
having more ability to power their gear.
CHAIRMAN HALFORD said he didn't want the small boats to be limited
from being safe or economic. He was concerned with the four small
Alaskan boats. MR. ANDERSON said he thought they would have to
define what a small boat is. He said this legislation is a
moratorium and authorizes the commission to do the study. This
won't be the format it will be forever. They need to establish a
constant to work with.
MR. KRYGIER said that Mr. Kirkson could petition the Board of
Fisheries to look into his development and they would be in a
position to not shut off his future opportunities.
SENATOR TORGERSON moved to pass SCSCSHB 141(RES) from committee
with individual recommendations and the accompanying fiscal note.
There were no objections and it was so ordered.
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