Legislature(2003 - 2004)
03/05/2004 03:35 PM Senate RES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
SB 347-COMM. FISHING MORATORIA, INCL. AK GULF
CHAIR SCOTT OGAN announced SB 347 to be up for consideration.
SENATOR BEN STEVENS, sponsor, informed members that after the
last hearing, several participants got together to address some
of the issues raised during that hearing. He moved to adopt CSSB
347, version Q, as the working document. There were no
objections and it was so ordered.
SENATOR BEN STEVENS explained the changes made to version Q were
a result of discussions among members of the Board of Fish, the
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), the North Pacific
Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC), and some industry
representatives. First, references to the Eastern Gulf were
removed from the bill. The second change of substance was made
on page 9, lines 27 and 28, regarding uncertainty about the
permitting and the cost of permits. An agreement was worked out
for a single fee for the trawl fishery and a single fee for the
pot or longline fishery.
The third change on page 9, lines 30 - 31, gives the Board of
Fisheries, the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC) and
the various management agencies the ability to explore and
develop limited entry or other management options, but any
proposal must be brought before the Legislature prior to
implementation. He said he believes all parties are in agreement
with these changes.
CHAIR OGAN asked where the constitutional amendment provision is
located.
SENATOR BEN STEVENS said it is on the top of page 10. He told
members:
We just wanted to say emphatically that if any of the
options for management require any sort of legislative
change or any constitutional change, that it will come
back to us for consideration of the members....
SENATOR ELTON stated his appreciation for the process Senator
Stevens used to develop the committee substitute, which
reflected concerns expressed by the public.
CHAIR OGAN asked for an explanation of what this legislation
would fix.
SENATOR BEN STEVENS deferred to Mr. DERSHAM for an answer.
MR. ED DERSHAM, Alaska Board of Fisheries, explained that a
Board of Fisheries workgroup has been working on a reaction to
the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council's rationalization
of groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska for several years.
That process should be complete in 2005.
When completed, it will leave our state waters in a
situation to where we can't even do status quo, for
example, in our codfish fishery. We couldn't continue
to have our state waters fishery, because with the
rationalized federal waters adjacent to our state
waters, there would be a lot of latent capacity freed
up that could just move into our state waters fishery
up... and cause that fishery to be a much greater race
for fish. We're trying to explore options of how to
react to the federal process in a way that best
protects the state and our state waters fisheries in
all groundfish. In the meantime, we don't have any way
to get our arms around the participants in the state
water fisheries without a temporary moratorium to
control new entrants coming in. That's the reason for
step one of having this temporary moratorium.
Any reactionary plan developed by the Board of Fisheries or the
CFEC, both working with ADF&G, would come before the
Legislature. All agencies support that approach, because any
allocation scheme would likely need clarification. He said the
Board would not be able to protect the state waters fisheries,
even as they exist now, without some way to stop an onslaught of
new entrants that would come under federal rationalization
without this temporary moratorium.
SENATOR BEN STEVENS said his brief explanation of why this bill
is necessary is outlined in the numbers on the handout he
provided on Wednesday. The number of participants in the halibut
fishery when the halibut quota management system was first
introduced in 1985 almost doubled by 1991 and, by 1994, when the
quota system was implemented, the sable fishery had almost four
times the number of participants. This bill will prevent that
same drastic influx into the fisheries, thereby causing
instability to the participants, communities, and processors. He
noted the board has been working on this issue for two years and
implementation may take another two to four years -
optimistically.
MR. DERSHAM recounted some concerns expressed at the last
meeting by other testifiers that the state's interests would be
diluted by coordinating the Board of Fisheries' decisions with
those of the NPFMC, although the Board of Fisheries has been
very clear throughout this process that the actions it takes
will be based on strongly protecting state authority over state
waters and that allocations would be based on what is best for
the economy of Alaska's coastal communities.
CHAIR OGAN asked if this bill would basically give the Board of
Fish authority to establish a moratorium whenever needed for
these particular fisheries.
MR. DERSHAM said that is correct. He explained the bill has two
parts - one gives CFEC the authority it needs to work out
establishing a moratorium. The second part, beginning with
section 9, is a specific moratorium on the groundfish fisheries
in the Gulf of Alaska to accomplish the immediate goal that he
and Senator Stevens described.
CHAIR OGAN asked Mr. Dersham to respond to criticism that this
proposal is designed to protect the financial interests of the
current participants rather than to protect the resource.
MR. DERSHAM said the specific moratorium this bill seeks does
not include the jig fisheries for the groundfish species. The
board purposely left entry in the jig fisheries open for new
entrants in coastal communities and young people. The jig
fisheries are growing, but the board believes there is room for
additional entrants. "And it's the lowest [cost] cod fishery to
get into in the groundfish fisheries so we specifically left
that open." He added that the Board and ADFG believe they will
be facing local depletion and probable conservation issues in
state waters without the moratorium.
CHAIR OGAN commented that the 20 halibut per day limit for
subsistence with no season limit would do more to deplete a
local fishery than anything else.
MR. DERSHAM revealed that the Board of Fisheries made several
recommendations to the NPFMC to amend the subsistence halibut
fishery in areas where the 20 fish limit is in place. Regarding
Cook Inlet, a trailing amendment is working its way through the
National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that should be on the
books this summer that would greatly decrease the area in which
that subsistence halibut limit would apply. The board will be
meeting with NPFMC later this month and will be asking when that
will be implemented.
SENATOR WAGONER asked if the board would be looking at quotas
for specific gear types in addition to the moratorium. He agreed
with the decision to leave jig fisheries out of the moratorium
to allow people with a limited budget to get into that fishery
and asked if giving the jig fishery a percent of the available
harvest each year was considered.
MR. DERSHAM replied that the current state waters cod fishery
has specific quotas for jigs versus pots in each area. The board
is also considering a possible expansion of the quota that would
be available for jig and new entrants based on protection and
the interest of coastal communities.
SENATOR WAGONER asked whether the permit would be issued to a
vessel or a vessel operator. He recounted that when IFQ shares
for halibut were established, many halibut fishers did not
receive them because they fished boats for other people. He
believes that was handled incorrectly and does not want to see
that happen again.
SENATOR BEN STEVENS answered that a moratorium is based on the
number of vessels participating in a fishery. The concept
Senator Wagoner referred to is a quota of distribution, which
would happen during the rationalization options. The Legislature
should not be the one to design the allocation system. A three-
year moratorium on these specific areas gives the CFEC and board
time to come up with options to bring back to the Legislature.
MR. DANA REED, a Kodiak jig fisherman, thanked Senator Stevens
for initiating this legislation because he feels the state has
let the federal government lead the way instead of shaping a
state fishery. He opined:
And leaving the jig fishery out of this moratorium is
absolutely asinine. It sounds good sitting from where
you are to let anybody who wants to fish come into the
only thing that would be left in this fishery. But I'm
here to tell you that the jig fishery - we are real
fishermen too and we've been at this for a while and
I'll tell you who we are, mostly are salmon fishermen
who don't make the money we used to, but we need that
money to live here and my cod fishery has become a
very integral part of the rest of my income for this
year. If it's left out of this, it will be a mess.
It's almost a mess already. You can see almost
everything that floats now has got jig machines on it
coming up from this year. And part of it's because of
this idea that they better get in here and get a piece
of something that might be worth something even if
they're not going to make any money doing it. A group
of us jiggers have gotten together and discussed some
of the possibilities of how to remedy the mess the
fishery is becoming and what it would really become if
you put a moratorium...[END OF SIDE A]
TAPE 04-21, SIDE B
4:25 p.m.
MR. REED continued:
...on all of the other catching vessels, but not on
jiggers. One of the things with exclusive registration
for gear boats and fishermen - but that doesn't
address the issue of just a lot of people going out
there and sucking the quota up and pushing it into a
derby and turning a commercial fishery into a joke.
It is a true commercial fishery and we thought maybe
something a little more palatable would be to take our
quota and give a portion of that to open access - 10
percent or 500,000 pounds. Right now we were on 4.5
million pounds just split with the pot fishery, but
they let that go over. So now we're cut down below 4
million pounds, which we will address at the Board of
Fish....
If there's going to be a moratorium, you have to
include everybody and you have to realize that jiggers
are fishermen and we are dependent on that income.
It's taken us several years to become as efficient as
we have. We've spent a lot of time and effort getting
into this fishery. If you leave us out, it's really...
just pushing us off as a scapegoat and it's not fair
and not acceptable. Thank you.
CHAIR OGAN thanked him, indicated there were no further
participants, and closed public testimony.
SENATOR BEN STEVENS summarized:
This bill was brought by request from the industry.
There were some concerns that were met and some
concerns were raised on Wednesday. Some fisheries were
excluded by request. The Board of Fish and Commercial
Fisheries Limited Entry Commission, Department of Fish
and Game, the North Pacific Council all have been
involved in this with industry participants and at
this point I think it's the development of a process
that has a long way to go and I think that we've done
about what we can do here. I would suggest that we
move on to the next step. This is one of those things,
Mr. Chairman, where - it's just the fish business.
SENATOR WAGONER said at the last hearing on this bill, two or
three people called in expressing gratitude for not including
the jig fisheries in this bill so the committee has had to weigh
both sides. He said if that issue needs further consideration,
that can happen as the bill moves forward.
CHAIR OGAN asked for a description of a jig fishery.
SENATOR WAGONER said it involves automatic jigs.
SENATOR BEN STEVENS added that two people could be working 9 or
10 machines that run 30 to 50 hooks.
SENATOR WAGONER moved CSSB 347(RES), version Q, and its attached
fiscal notes from committee with individual recommendations.
There were no objections and it was so ordered.
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