Legislature(1995 - 1996)
04/29/1996 03:42 PM Senate RES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
CSHB 538(2d FSH) HAIR BRAB VESSELS; LTD ENTRY FOR VESSELS
CHAIRMAN LEMAN brought CSHB 538(2d FSH) before the committee as the
next order of business.
REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN said he introduced HB 538 as a result of
discussions with fishermen, the Department of Fish & Game and the
Limited Entry Commission.
Representative Austerman said the Bering Sea hair crab fisheries is
a very delicate and rather small fishery in the Bering Sea that
first started back in about 1980, ran for a couple of years, and
then crashed because of over-fishing. It started up again in about
1990, but with the way the other crab fisheries are going out in
the Bering Sea, there is more and more of a concentrated effort on
the Korean hair crab. It has become apparent that because of the
small fishery that it is and hair crab being such a delicate crab
itself, that a moratorium should be placed on this fishery until
Fish & Game has a chance to take a hard look at it to see if it
needs to be limited on the number of boats that are operating out
there.
CHAIRMAN LEMAN asked if there has been any opposition to the
legislation. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN acknowledged there was some
opposition from some of the small fishing boats in the Bering Sea
and the St. Paul-St. George area. The legislation was then amended
to allow smaller vessels to be involved.
CHAIRMAN LEMAN asked if the legislation disallows larger vessels
from being involved. REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN replied that within
five miles of the shore, a vessel may not be longer than 58 feet,
but it does not disallow larger vessels outside that five-mile
limit.
REPRESENTATIVE AUSTERMAN pointed out that the legislation provides
that the moratorium will be repealed on July 1, 2000. During the
moratorium period, these are interim permits that are non-
transferrable and with no value to them. He said it has been
suggested to the Limited Entry Commission that they take a look at
setting up a system that if they do limited entry, they make them
non-transferrable permits that could possibly be returned to the
state and then given out either through some type of an auction, or
all allocation, or a drawing of some kind, so that we're not really
getting into giving away the state resources.
CHAIRMAN LEMAN opened the hearing on HB 538 to public comment.
Number 279
GORDON BLUE , testifying from Sitka, stated he shares the ownership
of two vessels that are in the Bering Sea crab fisheries and also
engaged in the Korean hair crab fishery around St. Paul Island.
The partners in the vessels include TDX Corporation, which is the
village corporation for St. Paul, and the Central Bering Sea
Fishermen's Corporation, which is a subsidiary of Central Bering
Sea Fishermen's Association, a community development group for St.
Paul Island.
Mr. Blue said they helped to restart the fishery in 1990, as well
as helping to develop a special gear tact that's now in the
regulations that is designed to limit by-catch and other kinds of
crab, and to run a clean fishery for hair crab in this area. They
have developed techniques to try to handle these animals as little
as possible and as delicately as possible in the conditions that
are out there.
He noted the Bering Sea red king crab fishery in Bristol Bay has
been closed for the last two seasons, it will probably be closed
again this year, and possibly for years in the future according to
the Department of Fish & Game. This has resulted in going from a
pioneering effort of two vessels to a total of 18 vessels last
year. He said they have been told that if this progression
continues, the Department of Fish & Game will close the fishery,
deeming it unmanageable with the kind of effort that's near
doubling every year. If the red king crab fishery is closed again
this year and they don't have some sort of protection, they
probably won't have a fishery at all.
Mr. Blue stressed the fishery has been vital to their business plan
for the small boats and the relatively small crab boats that they
are operating in that area. These are 100 foot boats so they are
not the same small boats that were also included in the bill under
the five-mile language. The intent there was to allow community
members in the partnership to try to operate within the shelter and
lee of the islands and take some of the crab that is near shore.
Concluding his testimony, Mr. Blue said he has a lot of hope that
this bill will do what it sets out to do, which is to shelter the
existing fleet, to prevent the fishery from being decimated by too
much effort, or alternatively, from losing all economic benefit and
having the fishery closed, and to just give a little breathing room
for a program to be fully developed.
CHAIRMAN LEMAN asked Mr. Blue if he supports the bill as currently
written. MR. BLUE answered that he does.
JOHN WINTHER, a resident of Petersburg testifying from Anchorage in
support of CSHB 536(2d FSH), stated he has been involved in the
Bering Sea crab fishery since 1973.
Mr. Winther pointed out that the hair crab fishery is one of the
few fisheries in that area totally managed by the state of Alaska.
Most of them are managed through the federal system or the North
Pacific Fisheries Management Council. This is why the fishermen
came to the Legislature asking for help to implement a moratorium.
Because it is state managed, it's one of the few fisheries that's
not included in the current moratorium in the Bering Sea.
Mr. Winther said he thinks the level of effort right now is as much
as the fishery can sustain. The quotas are roughly 1.5 million to
2 million pounds a year, the stocks seem fairly healthy, and the
harvest looks like it can sustain that level. He urged passage of
the legislation so that the fishermen can work with the Commercial
Fisheries Entry Commission to get something into place that will
benefit those already involved in the fishery. He also noted that
probably 75 percent of the harvest is being done by Seattle boats.
FRANK HOMAN, Commissioner, Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission,
said the Commission has been working with the sponsor and the
fishermen in the development of the moratorium legislation since
late last year when they were petitioned to investigate limited
entry for the hair crab fishery. The current system, which is a
individual license program, didn't fit the type of fishery that's
in the Bering Sea, which is larger boats that have relief skippers.
If they had gone ahead with their traditional system that's in
place, it would have allowed for eligibility from whatever skippers
had been on the vessels in the last four or five years, and that
would have substantially increased the numbers because some of them
have two or three different skippers. So they were looking for
another management system under a moratorium or limited entry, and
HB 538 directs the commission to look at a vessel licensing system
while providing a moratorium for up to four years.
Mr. Homan pointed out that the bill calls for a five-mile offshore
boundary and the moratorium would start at that point. The inshore
would be open to small boats, and the idea around that was to
protect an area for some of the local fishermen on some of the
resource there. Page 3, lines 2-5, allows the Commission to
establish administrative areas for the fishery. He said within
Fish & Game there are statistical areas that are used for
reporting, and one of them is a three-mile radius around the
islands of St. Paul and St. George. It would be the Commission's
intention to extend that by another two miles and call that the
administrative area so that the moratorium would apply outside of
that five miles.
There being no further testimony on CSHB 538(2d FSH), CHAIRMAN
LEMAN closed the public hearing and stated the bill would be set
aside until a quorum was established.
CSHB 538(2d FSH) HAIR CRAB VESSELS; LTD ENTRY FOR VESSELS
CHAIRMAN LEMAN brought CSHB 538(2d FSH) back before the committee,
and asked for the pleasure of the committee.
SENATOR TAYLOR moved CSHB 538(2d FSH) be passed out of committee
with individual recommendations. Hearing no objection, it was so
ordered.
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