00                   HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION NO. 25                                                                   
01 Urging the Governor to request that the North Pacific Fishery Management Council                                        
02 analyze the option of including community fishing associations as entities that may be                                  
03 granted catch shares in any trawl bycatch management program for the Gulf of Alaska.                                    
04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
05       WHEREAS healthy fisheries are the backbone of the economy and the culture of                                    
06 coastal communities in the state, affecting fishermen, processors, local businesses, and other                          
07 community residents; and                                                                                                
08       WHEREAS, in the Gulf of Alaska groundfish trawl fisheries, the North Pacific                                  
09 Fishery Management Council is considering a bycatch management program that would                                       
10 include a catch share or rationalization program; and                                                                   
11       WHEREAS, under a catch share program, the total allowable catch of a species in a                               
12 fishery is divided into shares, and those shares are usually allocated based on historical                              
13 participation in the fishery; and                                                                                       
14       WHEREAS, under a catch share program, each share is assigned to an individual,                                  
15 company, or cooperative, and the share holder is allowed to fish up to an assigned limit; and                           

01       WHEREAS, by providing more control and greater individual vessel accountability,                                
02 catch share programs can reduce the bycatch of prohibited species; and                                                  
03       WHEREAS catch share programs can also result in significant harm to coastal                                     
04 communities through excessive fleet consolidation, an unnecessarily high loss of crew jobs,                             
05 the loss of access to fishery resources for local fishermen and processors, the loss of locally                         
06 based vessels, and the flight of quota ownership from those communities; and                                            
07       WHEREAS the use of legal entities known as "community fishing associations" has                                 
08 been proposed as a means of reducing the possible negative effects of a catch share program                             
09 on coastal communities; and                                                                                             
10       WHEREAS direct allocations to fishing communities were authorized in the                                        
11 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006, and,                                  
12 under the Act, fishing communities are eligible to receive initial allocations of fishing quota                         
13 or to purchase or hold quota through community fishing associations; and                                                
14       WHEREAS, through the establishment of community fishing associations, shares                                    
15 may be allocated directly to coastal fishing communities, helping the economies of those                                
16 communities by anchoring catch shares in the affected coastal communities and by supporting                             
17 new generations of fishermen in those communities, amplifying the benefits to those                                     
18 communities over time; and                                                                                            
19       WHEREAS community fishing associations are not currently included in the North                                  
20 Pacific Fishery Management Council's framework for structuring a management program for                                 
21 trawl bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska trawl fisheries;                                                                    
22       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Governor to request                                  
23 that the North Pacific Fishery Management Council analyze the possibility of including                                  
24 community fishing associations among those entities that may be granted catch shares as an                              
25 element of any trawl bycatch management catch share program in the Gulf of Alaska; and be                               
26 it                                                                                                                      
27       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Governor to                                        
28 request that the North Pacific Fishery Management Council ensure that any Gulf of Alaska                                
29 trawl bycatch management catch share program include adequate community protections to                                  
30 sustain access to fisheries for coastal communities, to provide opportunities for new entrants                          
31 in those fisheries, to maintain the community benefits of those fisheries, including crew jobs,                         

01 and to protect the coastal economies and cultures of fishing communities in the state.