HB 286-FISHING PERMITS/ASSOCIATIONS/ASSESSMENTS  REPRESENTATIVE SCALZI, sponsor of HB 286, said the bill would offer the salmon industry a tool for consolidation. He said it would allow individuals to hold two salmon permits in any given area. He said there was often a lot of inactivity of permits and believed there were more permits issued in some areas than necessary; more permits were activated when a fishery became healthy through an increase in prices or salmon runs. HB 286 would offer individuals in the salmon fisheries the opportunity to buy and hold some of the permits. The permits would carry no privileges, such as extra fishing gear or time. He said consolidating the effort would keep fishermen from other areas from coming in and exacerbating the problem of overcrowding. He said HB 286 was the highest priority bill supported by the United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA) because it would offer the most benefit to the commercial fishing industry. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked Ms. Sue Aspelund to provide testimony. MS. SUE ASPELUND, Executive Director, Cordova District Fishermen United (CDFU), said CDFU represents the fishing families of the Copper River/Prince William Sound area. CDFU believes the industry needs a variety of tools to pursue structural changes necessary to compete in the new global marketplace. HB 286 would provide fishermen with one of the simplest and most immediate tools to get fishing gear out of the water in distressed fisheries. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked if there were any questions for Ms. Aspelund. There were none. MR. VICTOR SMITH said UFA and processors are saying that HB 286 is part of a plan to revitalize Alaskan salmon fisheries. He said the main authors of HB 286 were Mr. David Bedford, Executive Director of the Southeast Alaska Seiners Association (SASA), and Mr. Bob Thorstenson, president of UFA and stockholder of "Alaska Seafoods." He said fishermen themselves had very little input on the bill. The SASA board did not authorize or direct Mr. Bedford to proceed on its behalf regarding permit stacking. He said the board authorized a committee to explore options for fleet reduction but while that committee was exploring options, Mr. Bedford was also working on a plan of his own. He said Mr. Bedford denied saying there was a deal that processors would support permit stacking in exchange for UFA's support to keep global seafoods out. He said Mr. Bedford now claims he said UFA wouldn't oppose the processors' new management plan if the processors would support permit stacking. MR. VICTOR SMITH said one of the touted features of HB 286 was that it could be used in different ways in different fisheries. He wondered why that would be necessary because all Alaska salmon fisheries were subject to the same laws. He said UFA and SASA also used the selling point that HB 286 would be in the control of fishermen. He said they had possibly been guilty of involvement or trade on their global decision. He said nonresidents couldn't use their permits and were forced to sell. He said the salmon industry needs to follow the law. Key people involved in HB 286 had conflicts of interest and had broken rules of accountability. He said these same people would probably have control over permit stacking and how it would work. He believed HB 286 would be as bad for many Alaskans as it had been for the first round of nonresidents ousted from Alaska fisheries. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked if there were any questions for Mr. Victor Smith. There were none. He asked Mr. David Bedford to provide testimony. MR. DAVID BEDFORD, Executive Director, SASA, said he sat on the board of UFA for SASA and was licensed to practice law in Alaska. He said HB 286 is the highest priority piece of legislation for UFA and has a strong majority of support within that organization. He said UFA brought HB 286 forward because the salmon fisheries are in dire straits and some things need to be done to address the economic difficulties the fisheries are experiencing. He said HB 286 would give them the opportunity to reduce the number of people competing for a share of a shrinking pie so they could have a viable fishing business to support the coastal regions that depend on the salmon fisheries. MR. BEDFORD maintained that HB 286 was drafted to be as transparent as possible to make sure that control would be in the hands of the permit holders. It was drafted that way because they were concerned somebody might be able to use the bill to force something on fishermen that they didn't want. He said HB 286 would require a two-thirds vote of all permit holders before any kind of assessment could be levied. He said anybody wanting to initiate the program would be required to go to the permit holders with an outline of the plan so they had a very clear idea of what would be done and what their money would be paying for. The program would be regional so nobody from another area would have anything to say about a distant fishery. MR. BEDFORD said UFA and SASA are asking the Legislature to give them the tools to address their problems. 1:55 p.m. SENATOR THERRIAULT asked who would buy and hold the permits. MR. BEDFORD said the limited entry law specifies that only individuals can hold permits. He said the association would decide it was going to set up a program and figure out how to do it. They could contract with a permit holder to send their permit back to the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission to be extinguished, or the association could contract with a permit holder to hold a second permit until sometime in the future when the fishery was so lucrative that there should be more people fishing. Individuals would hold the permits at all times. SENATOR THERRIAULT asked if HB 286 might create a situation where people would buy low and hope to sell high. MR. BEDFORD said that is possible with any kind of effort reduction program. He said the Magnuson-Stevens Act provided effort reduction programs for federal fisheries. A person could buy a permit and try to speculate on it but he didn't think that would be a very good investment. He said people currently in the fishery would probably buy a second permit to hold because they would receive an annual payment from the association and they would have to compete with one less boat. He said the association should be able to contract for less money with a person who would be gaining the additional benefits of less competition. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked if there were any further questions for Mr. Bedford. There were none. MR. JERRY MCCUNE, UFA, said HB 286 wouldn't work for every fishery; it would be an option that some fisheries could use. He said people probably wouldn't buy another permit in a fishery where permits cost $60,000 to $70,000. However, they would probably buy another permit if the permit cost $10,000 to $18,000. He said that might be a good investment for a fisherman planning to stay in the fishery. MR. MCCUNE said the associations would be difficult to set up because the permit holders need to support the idea to start an association. He said many safeguards are contained in HB 286: a timeline on assessments is required; a two-thirds vote of all permit holders would be required to extend an assessment; and 25% of the permit holders could petition to have a vote to change or remove an assessment. CHAIRMAN TAYLOR asked if there were any questions for Mr. McCune. There were none. SENATOR COWDERY moved CSHB 286(RES) am out of committee with attached zero fiscal note and individual recommendations. There being no objection, CSHB 286(RES) am moved out of committee with attached zero fiscal note and individual recommendations.