Legislature(1995 - 1996)
04/27/1995 08:48 AM House FSH
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES
April 27, 1995
8:48 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Alan Austerman, Chairman
Representative Carl Moses, Vice Chair
Representative Scott Ogan
Representative Gary Davis
Representative Kim Elton
MEMBERS ABSENT
None
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
CSSB 21(RES): "An Act relating to penalties for violations of
commercial fishing laws."
PASSED OUT OF COMMITTEE
*HJR 44: Proposing postage stamps honoring wild Alaska
salmon and centuries of continued use of wild Alaska
salmon for subsistence, sport, and commercial fish
harvesters.
PASSED OUT OF COMMITTEE
PRESENTATION: "The Economic Impact of the Shoreside Processing
Industry Upon Alaska During 1993"
(* First public hearing)
WITNESS REGISTER
RICK LAUBER, LOBBYIST
Pacific Seafood Processors Association
321 Highland Drive
Juneau, AK 99801
Phone: 586-6366
POSITION STATEMENT: Provided presentation
PREVIOUS ACTION
BILL: SB 21
SHORT TITLE: FINES FOR COMMERCIAL FISHING VIOLATIONS
SPONSOR(S): SENATOR(S) HALFORD,Green
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
01/06/95 19 (S) PREFILE RELEASED - 1/6/95
01/16/95 19 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S)
01/16/95 19 (S) RES, JUD
01/25/95 (S) RES AT 03:30 PM BUTROVICH RM 205
01/25/95 (S) MINUTE(RES)
01/27/95 (S) RES AT 03:30 PM BUTROVICH RM 205
02/03/95 (S) MINUTE(RES)
02/06/95 180 (S) RES RPT CS 5DP SAME TITLE
02/06/95 180 (S) FISCAL NOTE (COURT #2, LAW-FY97
#3)
02/06/95 180 (S) ZERO FISCAL NOTE (DPS #1)
02/22/95 (S) JUD AT 01:30 PM BELTZ ROOM 211
02/27/95 (S) JUD AT 01:30 PM BELTZ ROOM 211
02/27/95 (S) MINUTE(JUD)
02/28/95 417 (S) JUD RPT 3DP 2NR (RES)CS
02/28/95 417 (S) PREVIOUS FNS (COURT #2, LAW #3)
02/28/95 417 (S) PREVIOUS ZERO FN (DPS #1)
02/28/95 417 (S) ADDITIONAL REFERRAL TO FIN
03/08/95 536 (S) FIN RPT 6DP 1NR (RES)CS
03/08/95 536 (S) ZERO FNS (DPS #4, COURT #5,
LAW #6)
03/08/95 (S) FIN AT 09:00 AM SENATE FINANCE 532
03/08/95 (S) MINUTE(FIN)
03/09/95 (S) RLS AT 04:15 PM FAHRENKAMP RM 203
03/09/95 (S) MINUTE(RLS)
03/16/95 645 (S) RULES RPT 2CAL 1NR 3/16/95
03/16/95 645 (S) READ THE SECOND TIME
03/16/95 645 (S) RES CS ADOPTED UNAN CONSENT
03/16/95 645 (S) ADVANCED TO THIRD READING UNAN
CONSENT
03/16/95 645 (S) READ THE THIRD TIME CSSB 21(RES)
03/16/95 646 (S) PASSED Y18 N- E2
03/16/95 651 (S) TRANSMITTED TO (H)
03/17/95 765 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S)
03/17/95 765 (H) FSH, JUDICIARY, FINANCE
04/26/95 (H) FSH AT 05:00 PM CAPITOL 124
04/27/95 (H) FSH AT 08:00 AM CAPITOL 124
BILL: HJR 44
SHORT TITLE: POSTAGE STAMP HONORING ALASKA SALMON
SPONSOR(S): REPRESENTATIVE(S) ELTON,Bunde
JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION
04/22/95 1451 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S)
04/22/95 1451 (H) FISHERIES
04/26/95 (H) FSH AT 05:00 PM CAPITOL 124
04/27/95 (H) FSH AT 08:00 AM CAPITOL 124
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 95-25, SIDE A
Number 000
CHAIRMAN ALAN AUSTERMAN called the meeting to order at 8:48 p.m.
and noted for the record that Representatives Davis, Elton and
Moses were in attendance and a quorum was present.
SB 21 - FINES FOR COMMERCIAL FISHING VIOLATIONS
Number 018
SENATOR RICK HALFORD, Prime Sponsor, SB 21, testified saying, "This
bill is familiar to those who were around last year but it's a
shadow of its former self. Last year both houses passed
legislation that increased the maximum violation penalties from
$3000 (to) $6000, to $6000, $12000. These are maximums, not
minimum mandatory, not minimums and the Court of Appeals'
guidelines for the application of maximum penalties are fairly
stringent in that they have to represent the worst violations in
that class of violations. The bill this year only adds an increase
in third and subsequent violations. It is fairly straightforward."
SENATOR HALFORD continued, "The department (Department of Public
Safety) in 1993, really went out and worked at enforcement as a
deterrent to some of the activities that were going on in some of
the fisheries. Former Deputy Commissioner Swackhammer was one of
the people that provided a lot of the original information for this
bill and a lot of the encouragement to go forward with it. I
believe in the worst kinds of cases that you need more potential
deterrent for multiple violators than are provided in existing law.
I don't think it will apply to that many people, but it will be
thought of by other people who will avoid those violations."
CHAIRMAN AUSTERMAN agreed, "You've got to get the fines up. It
makes it a deterrent for them to even consider doing their illegal
fishing across the lines."
Number 087
REPRESENTATIVE GARY DAVIS moved that CSSB 21(RES) be moved from
committee with individual recommendations.
There were no objections.
HJR 44 - POSTAGE STAMP HONORING ALASKA SALMON
REPRESENTATIVE KIM ELTON, PRIME SPONSOR, HJR 44, testified saying,
"This resolution, Mr. Chair, I think is a simple way and a free way
of raising the awareness of wild Alaska salmon, especially in the
domestic market place. It will make it easier, I think, to educate
people who have some concerns, who think that all salmon is
endangered. I think that it has advantages to both the sport
fishing industry by raising awareness of one of Alaska's most
important and unique resources in the sport fishing industry. I
think it also has value to the commercial fishing industry as
anything that starts delineating the different species of wild
Alaska salmon I think is going to help in the marketing of salmon
in the Lower 48."
CHAIRMAN AUSTERMAN agreed, "Anytime we can get out and promote our
wild salmon, we'll be doing just exactly that and this is obviously
a good method of doing it."
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS said, "Do people consider figures on stamps as
being something like a conservation (cause), like this is an
endangered thing? He also asked if specifically the term "wild"
would be used on the stamps.
REPRESENTATIVE ELTON replied, "The resolution says wild and natural
Alaska salmon. I would hate to assume what the final stamp will
look like, what either the art work or the printing will be," and
agreed there is a misconception that wild salmon are endangered.
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS reiterated that he hoped this effort didn't
backfire to encourage conservation measures.
Number 173
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS moved HJR 173 out of committee.
There were no objections.
PRESENTATION: "THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE SHORESIDE PROCESSING
INDUSTRY UPON ALASKA DURING 1993."
Number 197
RICK LAUBER, LOBBYIST, PACIFIC SEAFOOD PROCESSORS ASSOCIATION,
presented testimony on "The Economic Impact of the Shoreside
Processing Industry Upon Alaska During 1993". He said, "Several
years ago, the state and our industry was embroiled in a
controversy largely centering around the North Pacific Fishery
Management Council over the allocation of resources. We stood a
significant chance that the harvesters that catch and deliver fish
to plants located on shore would be preempted by the large factory
trawler fleet that operates off the coast for groundfish pollock
and pacific cod. So this issue was a major one and would have
significant impacts on the state of Alaska and certainly on the
shorebased processing industry. So we wanted to show and see what
impacts actually the shorebased processing industry overall had on
the state of Alaska. So we commissioned Pacific Associates."
MR. LAUBER continued, "Basically what the report shows (is) that
the seafood industry is Alaska's largest employer. It's the
largest private employer in the state and the second largest
taxpayer in the state of Alaska. There are about 550 seafood
processors, most of that number, of course, are small operations
but in total they process about 2.7 billion pounds of seafood. Mr.
Cotter extended those to say that daily, that would feed about one
million people. So there's a significant amount of seafood
processed in this state. (Indisc.) the processors paid the
harvesters, fishermen about $1 billion, a little over, and we
employed the full-time equivalent...now this is just the shorebased
processing industry, this does not include the fishing or
harvesting sector." He proceeded to provide other details of the
industry benefits to the committee members.
Number 297
CHAIRMAN AUSTERMAN asked if all seafoods were covered within the
scope of this report.
MR. LAUBER said yes.
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS said that this presentation was of real value
since the topic of value of commercial fisheries is frequently
raised by his constituents.
Number 330
MR. LAUBER continued, "One of the things that is a problem for our
industry: I, one time heard a person making a presentation about
the seafood industry in general and they characterized it as the
hidden industry. Now those of you that live in coastal communities
that are either primarily or have a significant part in the seafood
industry, will recognize the significance of it, at least in your
particular area." He then described some modern processing plants
found on the Aleutian Chain and the huge capital investment they
represent and how much of the state is unaware of these plants. He
added that he and Representative Moses were around in pre-oil
revenue days when the fishing industry was the largest revenue
producer in the state and it will probably grow in value again.
REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS pointed out that there are as many people
employed by the seafood industry as work for the government.
REPRESENTATIVE CARL MOSES said there is a great need for a small
boat harbor in Dutch Harbor for resident fishers.
ADJOURNMENT
CHAIRMAN AUSTERMAN thanked Mr. Lauber and adjourned the meeting at
9:13 p.m.
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