Legislature(2021 - 2022)GRUENBERG 120
04/08/2021 10:00 AM House FISHERIES
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ALASKA STATE LEGISLATURE
HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES
April 8, 2021
10:07 a.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Geran Tarr, Chair
Representative Louise Stutes, Vice Chair
Representative Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins
Representative Andi Story
Representative Sarah Vance
Representative Kevin McCabe
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Dan Ortiz
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 2
Supporting the Alaska Ocean Cluster in its mission, efforts, and
vision for a vibrant coastal economy in the state, its promotion
of a diversified and resilient state economy that creates value
from ocean resources, and its building of a statewide integrated
ecosystem of innovation and entrepreneurship relating to the
state's ocean economy.
- HEARD & HELD
PREVIOUS COMMITTEE ACTION
BILL: HCR 2
SHORT TITLE: SUPPORTING ALASKA OCEAN CLUSTER
SPONSOR(s): REPRESENTATIVE(s) STUTES
02/18/21 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRALS
02/18/21 (H) FSH, RES
04/08/21 (H) FSH AT 10:00 AM GRUENBERG 120
WITNESS REGISTER
SARA PERMAN, Staff
Representative Louise Stutes
Alaska State Legislature
Juneau, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: Presented HCR 2 on behalf of Representative
Stutes, prime sponsor.
JUSTIN STERNBERG, Program Director
Alaska Ocean Cluster (AOC)
Anchorage, Alaska
POSITION STATEMENT: On behalf of the Alaska Ocean Cluster,
provided invited testimony in support of HCR 2.
ACTION NARRATIVE
10:07:43 AM
CHAIR GERAN TARR called the House Special Committee on Fisheries
meeting to order at 10:07 a.m. Representatives McCabe, Vance,
Story, Kreiss-Tomkins, and Tarr were present at the call to
order. Representative Stutes arrived as the meeting was in
progress.
HCR 2-SUPPORTING ALASKA OCEAN CLUSTER
10:08:24 AM
CHAIR TARR announced that the only order of business would be
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 2, Supporting the Alaska Ocean
Cluster in its mission, efforts, and vision for a vibrant
coastal economy in the state, its promotion of a diversified and
resilient state economy that creates value from ocean resources,
and its building of a statewide integrated ecosystem of
innovation and entrepreneurship relating to the state's ocean
economy.
10:08:48 AM
SARA PERMAN, Staff, Representative Louise Stutes, Alaska State
Legislature, presented HCR 2 on behalf of Representative Stutes,
prime sponsor. She explained that the Alaska Ocean Cluster
(AOC) is a cluster of innovation, a term used to describe
economic hotspots where new technologies germinate at an
outstanding rate and where pools of capital, expertise, and
talent foster the development of new industries and new ways of
doing business. She further explained that it is an area,
space, or ecosystem where several groups, whether innovators,
entrepreneurs, individuals, or start-up businesses get together
and share access to funding, social networking, public, private,
ideas, personnel, and academic and research institutions.
MS. PERMAN pointed out that the Alaska Ocean Cluster is
specifically related to Alaska's blue economy, also known as
blue growth initiatives. She said it is one of many worldwide
clusters specifically related to oceans, with at least 50
worldwide today. Started in 2017 with a resolution from the
Bering Sea Fishermen's Association (BSFA), she noted that the
model for Alaska's Ocean Cluster is based off the models for
Ireland, Iceland, Norway, and Canada.
MS. PERMAN stated that AOC is important because Alaska's
maritime industry is huge and its growth potential is gigantic,
particularly when looking at the state's decline in other
revenues. She specified that Alaska is home to at least half of
the nation's coastline and one-third of the nation's Exclusive
Economic Zone, which is the 200 nautical mile offshore section
that falls under the jurisdiction of the U.S. for maritime
resources. Current industry includes offshore drilling,
fisheries, shipping, and tourism, she said, and Alaska is poised
to be the nation's leader in developing these industries and
others such as tidal energy, utilization of fish byproduct,
marine recreation, and mariculture.
MS. PERMAN related that on a global scale the blue economy is
estimated to double to approximately $3 trillion by 2030. With
the Alaska Ocean Cluster and Alaska's coastlines and industries,
she said Alaska is poised to be the nation's leader in maritime
industries and blue growth given the right circumstances and
support. The AOC leads the way in programming, advocacy, and
information exchange, she said; programs offered include
bootcamps for start-ups, incubation workshops for start-ups,
virtual idea sharing platforms, advocacy that includes
identifying current bottlenecks in regulations and regulatory
pathways, leveraging networks, and developing campaigns to
launch new products and companies.
MS. PERMAN noted that the Alaska Ocean Cluster relies on funding
from several sources, but primarily receives large federal
grants and is partially funded by the U.S. Economic Development
Administration (EDA). Right now, she continued, AOC is working
with Alaska's congressional delegation to increase federal
appropriation opportunities. She pointed out that the
legislature's role in passing HCR 2 is to send the message to
Congress that the state supports what the Alaska Ocean Cluster
is doing to grow this particular [economic] area.
10:15:11 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS inquired as to why HCR 2 is a
concurrent resolution rather than a joint resolution.
MS. PERMAN offered her understanding that a concurrent
resolution does not have to have the signature of the governor.
10:15:41 AM
REPRESENTATIVE VANCE related that she has searched online to see
what AOC is about and has done over the past few years. She
said she came across an article in "National Fisherman" magazine
about Seward being the first Alaska community to work with the
Alaska Ocean Cluster. She stated she was impressed that one
business filed a provisional patent on a new technology that won
an invention of the year award at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks (UAF). The invention, she continued, pulls hydrogen
out of the ocean water that can be stored for battery use and
deacidifies the water, a remarkable potential technology that
could help reduce acidification. She requested examples of
other innovations that have come out of this think tank.
MS. PERMAN replied that a small example is salmon fertilizer, a
byproduct of waste. Prior to formation of the AOC, she added,
Yummy Chummies came out. She said four start-ups are actively
working with the Alaska Ocean Cluster currently. She deferred
to Justin Sternberg of AOC to answer further.
10:17:54 AM
REPRESENTATIVE MCCABE asked whether the Alaska Ocean Cluster is
a part of the Bering Sea Fishermen's Association given the
person running AOC is an employee of BSFA. He said he looked at
the BSFA website and found that it specifically excludes
Southcentral from BSFA's purview. He asked what the benefit of
this is for the entire state of. He noted that the BSFA board
includes some folks from Juneau and Kodiak. He further asked
whether there are plans to expand and to take in all of Alaska
or whether it is specific to the Bering Sea and Juneau.
MS. PERMAN answered that AOC was created by a BSFA resolution
and falls under that umbrella, but her understanding is that it
is statewide. She said there is talk about having a physical
hub located in Seward for some of these programs and at one
point grant funding was being sought to do this. She pointed
out that the quote from BSFA used in HCR 2 is to promote and
enhance maritime industry, growth, and prosperity in Alaska, so
she is optimistic that that is statewide. She deferred to Mr.
Sternberg to answer further.
10:19:54 AM
REPRESENTATIVE MCCABE commented that it is a great program but
if the state legislature is supporting one program in only one
area of the state, then maybe the legislature needs to support
something that is going to be more all-inclusive. He related
that the BSFA website includes a map that excludes Southcentral
and most of the south side of the Aleutians. He observed that
one of the board members is on the Alaska Railroad Corporation
and asked why that is. He further observed that another board
member is with PKS Consulting and asked what that is.
REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS offered his understanding that
BSFA is the fiscal sponsor for AOC and that AOC is totally and
entirely a statewide endeavor. He said he has interacted with
the AOC staff for several years and there is no question that
AOC encompasses the entire state and the BSFA connection is not
material as far as how AOC is conducting itself.
REPRESENTATIVE MCCABE stated that those were his thoughts as
well until he looked at the BSFA website and saw that "pretty
much the entire AOC board works for them, or the staff works for
BSFA." He said he is looking for information because he really
does want to support this.
10:21:46 AM
CHAIR TARR opened invited testimony on HCR 2. She requested
that Mr. Sternberg first provide his invited testimony and then
answer Representative McCabe's questions.
10:22:08 AM
JUSTIN STERNBERG, Program Director, Alaska Ocean Cluster (AOC),
on behalf of the AOC, provided invited testimony in support of
HCR 2. He confirmed that AOC is a program of the Bering Sea
Fishermen's Association, which launched the AOC in 2017 to
promote and enhance maritime industry growth and prosperity in
Alaska. He further confirmed that BSFA works in Western Alaska,
but the AOC was founded to address Alaska as a statewide
initiative and AOC has operated that way since it began. He
noted that the AOC is BSFA's first program with a statewide
focus. In the past, he continued, BSFA has launched other
organizations and incubated them through their development until
they spun out as entities, which includes the community
development quota (CDQ) groups and various nonprofit and for-
profit entities that were started under the 501(c)(3) umbrella
of BSFA.
MR. STERNBERG said AOC is in its third year, its mission is to
grow Alaska's sustainable ocean economy, and is funded through a
mix of grants and support from its parent organization. In
addition, he continued, AOC is developing a membership model to
engage ocean-based industry partners. He related that in 2020
AOC was awarded an EDA grant of $2 million to build on AOC's
work with ocean-based entrepreneurs; the grant funded the
creation of Blue Pipeline Ventures. As part of that program, he
specified, AOC hired two promising young Alaskans: Taylor
Holshouser, a fellow with the [Wilson Center's] Polar Institute
and AOC's director of business development, and Garrett Evridge,
formerly the chief fisheries economist at McKinley Research, and
the leader of AOC's [strategy, research, and administration].
MR. STERNBERG specified that AOC is focused on the opportunities
in seafood processing for full utilization, as well as
mariculture, particularly seaweed mariculture in which Alaska
has a good shot at becoming a world leader. He said AOC is also
looking at ocean energy as well as technology and innovation
that has the promise to solve some of the [fishing] industry's
challenges, for example bycatch. He added that two other areas
of programmatic focus for AOC are fund development, and policy
and legislation, a program led by Ephraim Froehlich. He said
AOC is seeing a significant amount of funding coming into either
ocean clusters or ocean-based development and AOC is looking for
opportunities to bring those funding streams to Alaska.
MR. STERNBERG stated that AOC is presently working with four
companies in early-stage endeavors, one of which has a focus on
using artificial intelligence (AI) and data to map sea ice as
well as fisheries locations that could be applied to more
fishing operations and better navigation. He said another
company AOC is working with has smart technology that can
identify where buoys are left so it is easier for fishermen to
recapture them, especially if they get lost. Another company,
he continued, is looking at ways to streamline the processing on
board vessels to reduce the time and cost involved through using
machine learning and computer vision to improve the processing
of whitefish. He added that other examples of companies that
AOC has worked with include a coastal tourism company, the
company that filed a provisional patent, a mariculture company,
and a small seafood processor.
10:27:30 AM
CHAIR TARR requested Mr. Sternberg to elaborate on AOC's
relationship with BSFA.
MR. STERNBERG replied that the Alaska Ocean Cluster was launched
by the Bering Sea Fishermen's Association and is BSFA's first
statewide initiative. He said BSFA has a history of launching
and cultivating early-stage businesses under its wing until the
businesses are ready to become independent. He added that AOC
remains under the 501(c)(3) of BSFA and receives some of its
funding from this parent organization as well as benefitting
from BSFA's many decades of successful grant writing and
experience working in Alaska.
10:28:23 AM
REPRESENTATIVE MCCABE asked whether AOC has solutions regarding
bycatch. He predicted bycatch will be a forthcoming issue
before the committee because it is so huge, and a solution is
needed instead of dumping dead fish back into the ocean. He
further asked when AOC would be spun off on its own from BSFA.
MR. STERNBERG agreed the issue of bycatch is significant and a
big industry issue. He said AOC doesn't yet have a solution but
believes it could exist through some of the technologies that
are being developed, such as fish exclusion nets and artificial
intelligence technologies that can help identify where to be
fishing and to predict where fish are moving. Regarding when
AOC will be independent, he said he doesn't have an exact date,
perhaps a year or so, but that AOC is currently in the process
of looking at what that entails and fiscal sponsorship under
BSFA would probably continue.
10:30:47 AM
REPRESENTATIVE STORY requested Mr. Sternberg to elaborate on how
it comes about that the Alaska Ocean Cluster, through the Arctic
Economic Council and the pan-Arctic community, helps provide
world-class representation of Alaska to other organizations.
MR. STERNBERG replied that often it involves just an invitation
from an organization. He said there is quite a bit of interest
in what is happening in Alaska from other Arctic nations. The
original inspiration for AOC, he stated, came out of Iceland
through that country's ocean cluster, where a goal has been set
of 100 percent fish utilization in their seafood processing.
Iceland, he related, has turned what was waste products into
value-added products, many of which have more value than the
protein from the fish. He said there are great opportunities
for connecting with the international community and looking at
best practices that have already been developed in other
locations and then bringing them to Alaska and modifying them to
fit the conditions here. He noted that through Mr. Holshouser
and the [Wilson Center's] Polar Institute, AOC has been engaging
internationally for three years. He further related that he
himself sits on the Blue Economy Working Group for one of those
institutions and is looking at how the successes of Alaska's
neighbors can be replicated, as well as sharing Alaska's areas
of expertise.
10:33:15 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS observed that the PolArctic LLC
letter of support expounds on the portfolio of enterprises that
are doing innovation in the maritime sector, especially for out
of state entities and what the ultimate linkage is to Alaska.
He noted that "Launch Alaska" is an accelerator that has a
national portfolio and asked what AOC's strategy is.
MR. STERNBERG responded that AOC has a three-prong strategy
there that is sort of based on the experiences of Launch Alaska.
At the start, he explained, they were very focused on Alaska
based businesses, but to maintain the throughput of deal flow
that is required to operate an accelerator there needs to be
enough businesses coming through, so there was expansion to a
national approach. First and foremost, he said, AOC is looking
at supporting Alaska based businesses, but there are some
challenges in remote coastal Alaska where it is difficult to
find the human capital to build a well-rounded team that has all
the areas of expertise necessary. So, he continued, the Blue
Pipeline Venture Studio that AOC launched in October addresses
that human capital restraint by working closely with the
companies and providing some of the services they need to grow
their company to a point where they can receive funding and then
launch it. He further explained that AOC also looks at
companies which are not based in Alaska but have an addressable
market here, technologies that would be useful here, and
PolArctic, based in Virginia, is one of those. He said
PolArctic's founders are two Alaska Native women who now live in
the Washington DC area, and they have some technology that would
be useful in the areas of identifying sea ice flows and
potential fisheries, fish movement and locations. He stated
that AOC is also interested in looking at gaps in the market for
opportunities to start a company that AOC might be interested in
launching itself, then finding an entrepreneur who could then
take that company and run with it, particularly if it helps
provide the value chain that would be necessary to grow and
emerging industries such as mariculture.
MR. STERNBERG closed his testimony by noting that AOC is excited
to be engaging with the legislature and looks forward to working
with the state. He said the support AOC has received from the
federal delegation has been fantastic.
10:37:01 AM
CHAIR TARR addressed the difference between concurrent and joint
resolutions. She explained that a concurrent resolution is used
for internal business of the legislature, such as suspending and
amending the uniform rules, requesting action of executive
agencies, interim committees, fixing the time and place for
joint committees, and establishing joint committees, whereas
joint resolutions are used to communicate to Alaska's federal
delegation. She said HCR 2 is a concurrent resolution because
it is internal business.
REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS stated that it seems like this
should be a joint resolution because it is for external
audiences rather than the internal business of the legislature.
CHAIR TARR pointed out that the resolves in the resolution do
not include communicating to the federal delegation and that is
why she thinks it ended up being a concurrent resolution.
Typically, she continued, a joint resolution would include a
further resolve that says copies will go to all the federal
people, but for this resolution it is the legislature welcoming
opportunities to collaborate with the Alaska Ocean Cluster.
REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS stated he thinks joint resolutions
are not just exclusively for the congressional delegation but
for any external audience that the legislature is expressing its
position on. He allowed that the legislature's support will be
clear in either instance.
10:39:07 AM
CHAIR TARR opened public testimony on HCR 2. She closed public
testimony after ascertaining that no one wished to testify.
10:39:23 AM
The committee took an at-ease from 10:39 a.m. to 10:42 a.m.
10:42:06 AM
CHAIR TARR announced that HCR 2 would be held over so the
resolution's format, not the resolution's content, could be
looked at further.
10:42:43 AM
REPRESENTATIVE KREISS-TOMKINS offered his support for HCR 2 and
extended compliments to the talented team at AOC.
10:44:05 AM
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business before the committee, the House
Special Committee on Fisheries meeting was adjourned at 10:44
a.m.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| HCR 2 Sponsor Statement 03.16.2021.pdf |
HFSH 4/8/2021 10:00:00 AM HFSH 4/13/2021 10:00:00 AM SRES 2/21/2022 3:30:00 PM |
HCR 2 |
| HCR 2 Version A 3.16.2021.pdf |
HFSH 4/8/2021 10:00:00 AM HFSH 4/13/2021 10:00:00 AM |
HCR 2 |
| HCR 2 Fiscal Note - LEG-SESS-04-07-21.pdf |
HFSH 4/8/2021 10:00:00 AM HFSH 4/13/2021 10:00:00 AM |
HCR 2 |
| HCR 2 Supplemental Document - Alaska Ocean Cluster Overview 4.7.21.pdf |
HFSH 4/8/2021 10:00:00 AM HFSH 4/13/2021 10:00:00 AM SRES 2/21/2022 3:30:00 PM |
HCR 2 |
| HCR 2 Testimony Received by 4.7.21.pdf |
HFSH 4/8/2021 10:00:00 AM SRES 2/21/2022 3:30:00 PM |
HCR 2 |