Legislature(2001 - 2002)
02/27/2002 03:43 PM Senate RES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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SCR 28-JOINT LEGIS SALMON INDUSTRY TASK FORCE
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON announced SCR 28 to be up for consideration.
MR. IAN FISK, staff to Senator Austerman, sponsor of SCR 28,
said:
I know that the Senate Resources Committee is well
aware of the crisis in Alaska's salmon industry and
well aware of the gravity of that crisis. What this
resolution does is allow the legislature to step up to
the plate and provide some real leadership to find
solutions to the salmon industry's problems. Previous
summits, there have been three of them, that the
Administration organized on this issue made some
strides and members of the industry put some good
effort into those. We will review the findings of those
summits, but they have essentially amounted to a strike
out. We're going to step up to the plate and we might
not hit the homerun that wins that game, but we'll at
least get a few men on base.
MR. FISK reviewed the changes in the committee substitute.
SENATOR TAYLOR moved to adopt the CS, Version L\Utermohle
2/27/02, to SCR 28. There were no objections and it was so
ordered.
SENATOR HALFORD said they might want to find people who are in a
broad sense involved in the commercial salmon industry for the
public members. He wanted to make sure that was the intent,
because they might be excluding people that might be worthwhile
to have on it.
MR. FISK agreed and said that is the intent.
SENATOR ELTON said he thought it would be important to have some
one from the transportation industry involved, because that
contributes to the cost effectiveness of the industry. He said
the language on lines 15 and 16 on page 3 could be construed by
some to be in conflict with the further resolved provision on
lines 27 - 29 where it says the task force shall be appointed to
represent the statewide salmon industry as a whole and not just a
particular region or harvesting sector of the industry.
MR. FISK said he was correct and that there wouldn't necessarily
be solutions that would affect the industry across the board as
each region of the state has particular issues. The intent of the
sponsor and this language is to make sure that in selecting
members for this task force they don't select people who have a
narrow interest in the industry.
SENATOR HALFORD agreed with narrowing the focus to commercial
fisheries issues from where it was initially, but said there is
one WHEREAS clause that tweaks the other interests unnecessarily
- "Whereas allocation issues between commercial fishers and sport
fishers are becoming more problematic all the time."
MR. FISK replied that the sponsor wouldn't have any objection to
deleting it. He added the intent of the membership is to focus on
the commercial industry and to make sure it is well represented
on the task force. They would be able to contract out and bring
in information from other sources.
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON said he agreed with Senator Halford.
SENATOR HALFORD moved to delete lines 8 and 9 on page 2 and asked
for unanimous consent. There were no objections and Amendment 1
was adopted.
SENATOR WILKENS said he has heard a lot about the threat of
farmed fish to our salmon industry, but that issue is not
addressed and he wondered if it would be appropriate, "Or are we
just whistling past the graveyard by not addressing it."
MR. FISK replied that salmon farming is responsible to a large
degree for what has changed the market place for our salmon and
the task force needs to consider what we can learn from that
industry. But there is broad based consensus that it should focus
on the strengths of the wild salmon industry to help it better
compete. Starting on the bottom of page 2 there is language to
that affect.
SENATOR LINCOLN said she didn't have a fiscal note.
MR. FISK replied that they would have a fiscal note before the
bill gets to the Finance Committee.
SENATOR HALFORD recommended that the fiscal note be substantial
enough to get the kind of expertise it would take to work on this
issue. He thought they would need at least $200,000 and maybe
considerably more than that.
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON said there had been some discussion about
$500,000 being available.
SENATOR STEVENS said that they tried to delineate seats on the
task force to be held by all the industries. They didn't want to
exclude anyone. He stated, "The most important thing is that we
get people that understand the business."
SENATOR ELTON said he thought the discussion was on point and
that the Legislative Council has approved requests that lead to
the kind of purchase of knowledge that we need to make reasonable
and rational decisions. He remarked:
Quite frankly, this task force is going to need some
staff that is dedicated only to this and I don't think
we can go down to the Department of Fish and Game and
ask to borrow their people. I don't think they've got
people to lend.
MS. SUE ASPELUND, Executive Director, Cordova District Fishermen
United (CDFU), supported CSSCR 28(RES). It provides CDFU with the
opportunity to begin the very important discussions on how to
restructure the evaluation of their industry. They feel that a
successful approach will involve three components:
· it must be on a statewide basis and be controlled by
Alaskans in Alaska;
· representatives of the salmon industry - fishermen, tenders
and processors - must be involved throughout the process
from the beginning and at the most basic levels;
· a funding mechanism is necessary to help them move forward
since the industry does not have the resources and
infrastructure necessary to facilitate the broad based and
far reaching considerations that have to occur in order to
achieve success.
MS. ASPELUND said she thought it was important to recognize that
in order to enable the participation of the processors in these
discussions, this process will have to be convened by government
in order to address antitrust concerns and the committee
substitute does a good job of outlining most of the problems of
the industry.
MR. CHRIS BERNS, Kodiak fisherman, supported SCR 28.
MR. OLIVER HOLM, Kodiak fisherman, said he has fished since the
sixties and supported SCR 28. He said that the salmon market is
world wide and a major cause of the crisis is the price of farmed
fish. There are some fair trade issues to look into and there is
Japanese and U.S. corporate involvement in Russian salmon
hatcheries and processing and Japanese workmen involved in
Chilean farms and Alaska salmon processing. SCR 28 should include
the examination of these issues. He supported Sue Aspelund's
comments about work being done on a statewide basis and involving
everyone in the industry.
SENATOR TAYLOR moved to pass CSSCR 28(RES) from committee. There
were no objections and it was so ordered.
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