00SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 24                                                                                          
01 Requesting the Department of Commerce to give a high priority to fisheries                                              
02 development project grants for the Alaska salmon industry.                                                              
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04  WHEREAS the salmon industry of Alaska, once the shining star of the seafood                                            
05 industry of the United States, is suffering global competition that threatens the nation's                              
06 worldwide competitiveness and critically diminishes the benefits the nation receives from                               
07 Alaska's fisheries; and                                                                                                 
08  WHEREAS Alaska's salmon production has historically constituted a major                                                
09 component of the nation's seafood production through this century, yet the Alaska salmon                                
10 industry has not received any governmental assistance for development of the salmon industry,                           
11 other than for promotion of salmon products; and                                                                        
12  WHEREAS, 10 years ago, Alaska produced 40 percent of the world's salmon                                                
13 products, but now Alaska's share of world salmon production is 30 percent and is dropping                               
14 due to subsidized salmon farming around the world and emergence of Russian salmon on the                                

01 world's markets; and                                                                                                    
02  WHEREAS the Alaska salmon industry must improve its processing technology,                                             
03 investigate new value-added uses for salmon, develop new quality assurance criteria, create                             
04 new and diverse market opportunities, and open up new lines of communication between the                                
05 Alaska salmon industry and the nation's food processing industry in order to remain                                     
06 competitive on world markets; and                                                                                       
07  WHEREAS governmental assistance to the Alaska salmon industry through the                                              
08 Saltonstall-Kennedy Act will benefit the nation through hundreds of millions of dollars in                              
09 increased revenue to this broad-based industry, enhance one of Alaska's and the nation's                                
10 greatest natural resources, and reduce our nation's foreign trade deficit;                                              
11  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the                                             
12 Secretary of Commerce to give a high priority to grants for fisheries development projects                              
13 under the Saltonstall-Kennedy Act that will enhance the Alaska salmon industry through                                  
14 improvements in fish processing technology, development of new salmon seafood products,                                 
15 development of new quality assurance criteria, creation of new and diverse market                                       
16 opportunities, and communication between salmon seafood producers and the nation's food                                 
17 processing industry.                                                                                                    
18  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                                
19 United States; the Honorable Ronald H. Brown, Secretary of the U.S. Department of                                       
20 Commerce; the Honorable Leon E. Pannetta, Director of the Office of Management and                                      
21 Budget; the Administrator, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S.                                        
22 Department of Commerce; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank                                        
23 Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of                                  
24 the Alaska delegation in Congress.