Legislature(2005 - 2006)SENATE FINANCE 532
03/30/2005 01:00 PM House RESOURCES
| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| HJR9 | |
| HJR16 | |
| HB198 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| *+ | HJR 16 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HB 198 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | HJR 9 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | HB 174 | TELECONFERENCED | |
HB 198-AQUATIC FARMING CO-CHAIR SAMUELS announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 198 "An Act relating to aquatic farming; and providing for an effective date." JOS GOVAARS, Staff to Representative Jim Elkins, said HB 198 amends Alaska's Aquatic Farming Act and will allow aquatic farms to operate in compliance with a recent supreme court decision. It will permit shellfish farmers to sell insignificant wild shellfish stocks, he explained. Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G) opened a commercial dive fishery on designated mariculture sites to remove the wild geoducks, which prepares the sites for future mariculture. He noted that this legislation is a compromise between industry members and the administration. REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER asked about the taxation. 1:50:20 PM JULIE DECKER, Executive Director, Southeast Alaska Regional Dive Fisheries Association (SARDFA), Wrangell, said HB 198 is a result of a supreme court decision, which forced the parties to come to the table and create a compromise. The levy, which Representative Kapsner referred to as a tax, should be set in regulations because this is a new way to approach resource management. If the legislature feels it is appropriate to set the levy in statute, she said SARDFA would like it as high as possible. The court said the state cannot hand significant stocks to an individual. To comply with the court decision, the levy would need to be high enough to make sure there is no net profit going to the farmer, she said. The farmers will be allowed to clear land to prepare for their farming activities. 1:52:33 PM ROBERT HARTLEY, Oyster Farmer and President, Alaska Shellfish Growers Association, Homer, said HB 198 is an enabling bill to allow the shellfish industry to go forward. Dive fishermen and the state are in agreement with this legislation, he added. He said that without the bill, the geoduck farms will be gone and the Seward hatchery will close, because the geoduck seed is a vital part of the shellfish hatchery business plan. 1:54:08 PM DAVID BEDFORD, Deputy Commissioner, Alaska Department of Fish & Game, said he was one of the principles involved in developing "this compromise." He said Alaska has been a poor environment for the development of geoduck farms, which he thinks will be a productive industry. The superior court said the state constitution bars ADF&G from transferring a significant amount of common property resource to farmers. The supreme court said there is no statutory authority to transfer insignificant amounts. HB 198 remedies the problem. It allows shellfish farmers to harvest insignificant amounts of wild stock from their farm sites, he said. For geoducks, ADF&G staff believe 12,000 pounds per farm site should be considered insignificant. Full public regulatory review will revisit this number, he said. Other elements of HB 198 are important, he added. Section 2 reiterates the superior courts decision that the state may not authorize a taking of significant stocks of shellfish by a farmer, and surveys will be required by biologists. 1:57:35 PM MR. BEDFORD said that Section 3 of HB 198 creates a new authority for the commissioner of ADF&G to allow a farmer to harvest a significant amount of wild stock with an appropriate levy--not a tax, but a right to harvest. He said that this is new ground, and advised that the greater the compensation the public will receive, the more it will be acceptable for the exclusive harvest. Whatever price was charged, farmers would need to be somewhere below the break-even point. 2:00:01 PM MR. BEDFORD said Section 5 is important, because ADF&G does not allow the public access to proprietary information, but it will report to the public the total amount of shellfish taken. He said another section requires farmers to leave the amount of stock that they take when their permit is over. 2:01:33 PM CO-CHAIR SAMUELS said there is talk of an amendment that defines an insignificant number. MR. BEDFORD said ADF&G prefers to set the amount in regulation because that process allows for more science and public input. 2:02:36 PM REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER suggested that it is also easier to change regulations. MR. BEDFORD said it is true, but there would be another hearing. REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER asked about the level of a levy. MR. BEDFORD said the principle criteria is what is adequate compensation to the public for a common property resource. REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER said she doesn't understand how farmed animals can be a common property resource. MR. BEDFORD answered that in aquatic farming, there are natural stock already there. 2:04:59 PM REPRESENTATIVE KAPSNER asked how it is lucrative if a farmer is assessed a 50 percent levy. MR. BEDFORD said there is no levy on their stock, only on the natural stock. 2:05:36 PM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD asked the difference between wild and farmed stock. MR. BEDFORD said they are easily identified by age and size. 2:07:16 PM PAUL FUHS, Pacific Aquaculture Caucus (PAC) Alaska, said shellfish farming will be a good industry. One five-acre farm can produce as much as the total commercial harvest of Alaska wild stock in one year. It will help the wild fishery because it creates a year-round market, he said. He said the tension between wild harvesters and farmers is that farmers want to establish farms on good habitat, which means there are already wild stock there. There is no commercial fishery on a site with only 100,000 pounds of wild stock. He said the legislature was fed up with ADF&G for not allowing farms, so it passed House Bill 208. He said there are two amendments. The one from Lance Nelson in the Department of Law is a good amendment, he opined. MR. FUHS said he will leave it up to the legislature to determine whether to set 12,000 pounds in policy, but, "I wish we could say that we had more faith in [ADF&G] to stick by 12,000 pounds, or not attach other things to it, like how close it is to another fishery or other things that you could never define. My clients are going to be fine with their farm, but if you want this to go into an industry and have other people to be able to have farms sites where there's insignificant stocks, you either need to put it in as 12,000 pounds or keep a close eye on what [ADF&G] is doing. Eventually, I think we may come to the conclusion you really need to move this to the Department of Agriculture in [the Department of Natural Resources]." He said that ADF&G has a natural hostility to farming. 2:11:29 PM REPRESENTATIVE CRAWFORD asked the value of 12,000 pounds. MR. FUHS said 12,000 pounds would wholesale at $100,000. REPRESENTATIVE LEDOUX asked, "Do these things move around?" MR. FUHS said geoduck clams live in one place about three feet under the sea floor and filter 80 gallons of water a day. 2:13:36 PM MR. FUHS said he doesn't know anyone who is opposed to HB 198. 2:14:11 PM REPRESENTATIVE ELKINS offered Amendment 1, as follows: Page 1, line 9, delete "acquire ownership of" Hearing no objection, Amendment 1 carries. 2:14:58 PM CO-CHAIR RAMRAS moved to pass HB 198 as amended with individual recommendations. There being no objection, it was so ordered.
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