00                    HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 22                                                                   
01 Affirming the legislative intent of state law that the Alaska Board of Fisheries currently                              
02 has the tools and authority to allocate fishery resources within a fishery based on vessel                              
03 size class, gear limits, trip limits, and registration areas.                                                           
04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
05       WHEREAS art. VIII, Constitution of the State of Alaska, gives the legislature the                               
06 authority to manage the state's fish and game resources for the maximum benefit of the people                           
07 of Alaska, and the legislature has delegated this authority to the Board of Fisheries and Board                         
08 of Game and established statutory framework giving the boards necessary tools to manage                                 
09 resources and satisfy the constitutional mandate of maximum benefit to Alaskans; and                                    
10       WHEREAS the management tools provided to the Board of Fisheries originate under                                 
11 AS 16.05.251, which allows regulations for fishing in different districts in a single                                   
12 administrative area and regulation by vessel size and gear type; and                                                    
13       WHEREAS the Board of Fisheries has approved a broad spectrum of management                                      
14 regimes based on an implicit authority to allocate among different fisheries; and                                       
15       WHEREAS there has been discussion in the legislature and in the fishing community                               
01 questioning whether the Alaska Supreme Court decisions set out in Grunert v. State, 109 P.3d                            
02 934, 930-932 (Alaska 2005), and State v. Grunert, 139 P.3d 1226, 1235-1239 (Alaska 2006),                               
03 could be used to overturn a wide range of regulations adopted by the Board of Fisheries; and                            
04       WHEREAS the Grunert decisions focused on a regulation that allocated within a                                   
05 fishery a cooperative allocation that allowed nonparticipants to benefit from the efforts of                            
06 participants, which is a distinct issue and does not correlate to other existing state fisheries                        
07 management schemes; and                                                                                                 
08       WHEREAS, before the Grunert decisions, the Alaska Supreme Court, in State v.                                  
09 Hebert, 803 P.2d 863 (Alaska 1990), upheld the use of superexclusive use areas, and this case                           
10 was not mentioned as being overturned in the Grunert decisions; and                                                     
11       WHEREAS the regulations limiting catch based on harvest objectives, such as Prince                              
12 William Sound and Chatham Strait black cod, do not create a cooperative fishery but rather                              
13 limit the total amount a fisherman can harvest, and hence do not fall under the purview of the                          
14 Grunert decisions; and                                                                                                  
15       WHEREAS existing statutory language allows the Board of Fisheries to adopt                                      
16 regulations to set quotas, has been interpreted to allow quotas based on vessel size class, and                         
17 provides the board a solid statutory base for making allocation decisions; and                                          
18       WHEREAS existing state fishery management plans for state waters allocate portions                              
19 of a fishery based on vessel size class, gear limits, trip limits, and registration areas;                              
20       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature affirms the legislative intent of                              
21 state law that the Board of Fisheries currently has the tools and authority to allocate fishery                         
22 resources within a fishery based on vessel size class, gear limits, trip limits, and registration                       
23 areas; and be it                                                                                                        
24       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board of Fisheries is encouraged to proceed with                                      
25 the management of public resources based on the legislative intent of the Alaska Statutes                               
26 without speculative consideration of the Grunert decisions.