SB 284-BOARD OF FISHERIES: MEMBERSHIP  4:31:08 PM CHAIR HUGGINS announced SB 284 to be up for consideration. Before the committee was CSSB 284 ( ) 25-LS1500\V. SENATOR LYDA GREEN, sponsor of SB 284, indicated she didn't have anything more to add. 4:31:31 PM DWIGHT KRAMER, Chairman, Kenai Area Fisherman's Coalition, opposed SB 284. They didn't support it because it dictates Board of Fisheries seat requirements for select user groups and takes away the governor's flexibility to fill seats as necessary to maintain balance between user groups and diverse demographic areas throughout the state. He said the need for regulatory changes in the state's personal use fisheries have been minimal. The Kenai and Kasilof Rivers provide the largest personal use fishery opportunity in the state and the board has made very few changes to the regulations in this fishery. 4:34:21 PM GERRY MERRIGAN, representing himself from Petersburg, opposed SB 284. He said he had been attending Board of Fisheries meetings on an off for the last 20 years for Southeast and statewide crab and Bering Sea issues. If you look at the volume of proposals the board goes through, you get a healthy respect for what they do. He opposed SB 284 because it designates seats by sectors and limits family affiliation and what family members can do for a living. Both are very impractical. He explained that the pool of knowledgeable good people who are willing to do this job and make the necessary time commitment and fill out the new financial disclosure forms is small; this legislation will make that pool even smaller. If the goal is to have a fair board that follows a good public process and uses the best science, this legislation doesn't do it. Designating seats to sectors will do just the opposite. The result will be members that will be entrenched and represent just their sector and not the public interest at large. MR. MERRIGAN said the issues before the board are related 70 percent to commercial use, 20 percent sport and personal use and 5 percent subsistence and probably 5 percent related to allocation issues. Unfortunately, the 5 percent of allocation issues gets all the attention. He asked the committee to look at the entire volume of board decisions over multiple cycles of addressing the same issues. This legislation seems to be responding to one event at one time that is no doubt important to those constituents. But the legislation proposes to fix a system that is not broken and uses a sledge hammer to do it. Some people think the process is fair if they just got what they wanted, but it's really and issue of whether the public can provide input along with the ADF&G and the Department of Law. The board members can then make a decision weighing all the factors. CHAIR HUGGINS asked what might improve the board's performance. MR. MERRIGAN replied to get good people on it because the current members are getting worn out. Sometimes people - just to make a point - will put in the same proposals to create a paper trail. So, while he didn't want to deny the public access, he thought coming up with a way to eliminate duplicate proposals and ones that are already in regulation would be worth looking into. In terms of going for fair and balanced, you have to step back and look at it over a longer period of time and try to not react to a single issue at a single meeting. 4:40:02 PM SENATOR GREEN observed that a de facto appointment by designation of user groups is already practiced; this would just admit what is being done and clearly define it. MR. MERRIGAN said while there are no designated seats and you want good people, he thought they had always tried to keep Alaska's regions represented. The issues are very complicated region to region. SENATOR GREEN agreed. SENATOR WAGONER commented for people who hadn't tried to actually find qualified people to serve on the board and then tried to talk them into serving that a very small pool of people is available and they do it for the fish and not the user group. 4:44:28 PM SENATOR WAGONER wanted to dispel the notion that some people have about the number Cook Inlet fishermen who have served on the board and said in fact, not one has been on the board for the last 35 years - and the biggest controversy every three years is Cook Inlet. It's not a matter of commercial/sport representation; it's a matter of fairness. CHAIR HUGGINS said that's a debatable subject. 4:45:24 PM LEROY CABANA, representing himself from Homer, said he owns a seine boat, but he sport and personal fishes, too. He opposed SB 284. He said he is a lifelong Alaskan person and is offended and outraged to be singled out as a commercial user when he does them all. CHAIR HUGGINS asked if he goes to Board of Fisheries meetings. MR. CABANA answered yes and added that years of high emotion means nasty as usual. SENATOR STEVENS asked if he thought Mr. Merrigan's summary if the spread of issues was correct. 4:51:05 PM MR. CABANA answered yes. Most of the stuff the board deals with provides good management. He agreed that the members must have broad experience. CHAIR HUGGINS asked how he would improve the process. MR. CABANA answered he thought the board process had improved except for the Susitna Valley problems. The vetting of people who are serving on the board is better. 4:53:21 PM CHAIR HUGGINS asked when he sees the major change in the demographics that are projected to be even more major going forward, does that cause him to think the board needs to change how the resource is viewed. MR. CABANA replied that the management of the Southcentral resources are going to be under continuous pressure just like they are in the Lower 48 and the voters would eventually prevail as far as establishing a larger percentage of the harvest. The argument is about why the fish aren't there and restructuring the board won't fix that. 4:54:41 PM at ease 4:56:19 PM WADE WILLIS, representing himself from Anchorage, said he subsists on the Copper River; he has a degree in marine biology and has submitted several proposals and supported SB 284. It will insure that the board has diversity among user groups by making sure they are fairly represented. 4:59:34 PM ROD ARNO, Executive Director, Alaska Outdoor Council, strongly supported SB 284. 5:02:29 PM PAUL SHADURA, Executive Director, Kenai Peninsula Fishermen's Association, opposed SB 284 and said this measure would not encourage diverse views and promote the ability to negotiate. He pointed out that the statute also says board members should not be appointed with regard to geographic location or user group. 5:05:22 PM YAKOV REUTOV, K-Bay Fisherman's Association from Homer, opposed SB 284. The Board Of Fisheries should make decisions based on sound biological data, not on an agenda. Besides this bill only provides for two members to represent commercial fishermen and that wasn't fair either. From his experience, commercial fishermen are the most conservation minded of people because they want to have enough fish for everybody. They will be the first to support the biologists and fisheries experts in all areas. This is just another blatant disregard by the sport fish industry for the Board of Fisheries process. CHAIR HUGGINS noted that he is a sport fisherman and that the bill provides for only two sport fishermen, as well. So, it would be equal by design. 5:07:11 PM JESSIE NELSON, representing herself from Homer, opposed SB 284 saying the board makes rules for fishermen all over the state for all gear types and a multitude of species and experience is vital. She said she is a commercial and sport fisherman as most commercial fishermen are. She said commercial fishermen understand the intricacies of gear and the rules more so than sport fishermen. Most sport fishermen think commercial fishermen are bad and their livelihoods should be taken away. To put five sport personal use members and two commercial members on the board in this context is just plain wrong she said. 5:09:20 PM SENATOR STEVENS remarked that he was concerned about the amount of activity the board has that affects commercial fisheries and the limited numbers of commercial fishermen who would be allowed to serve on it. CHAIR HUGGINS held SB 284 and commented that the more the membership gravitates toward user groups, the more self defeating the process becomes.