SB 60-BOUNTY ON SEA OTTERS  3:36:19 PM CHAIR GIESSEL announced SB 60 to be up for consideration, and noted that public testimony would continue today. 3:37:06 PM JAMES SULLIVAN, Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (SEACC), Juneau, Alaska, said SEACC strongly supports the right of Alaska Natives to hunt sea otters for subsistence purposes and for the creating and selling of handicrafts and clothing as Section 101(b) of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) allows. But SB 60, as written, conflicts with 109(a) of the MMPA that provides that no state may enforce or attempt to enforce any state law or regulation relating to the taking of any species of marine mammal within the state unless the secretary has transferred authority for the conservation and management of that species to the state under Section 109(b)(1). SB 60 is impermissible because the Secretary of the Interior has not granted the state management authority under 109(b)(1) of the act. Regardless of how the bill is currently written, he stated SEACC believes that ecosystem-based management reliant on the best available scientific information is the proper approach to insure healthy and sustainable fisheries within the state of Alaska. He said SEACC does not support any type of bounty system, however written. 3:38:51 PM ROSITA WORL, President, Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), Juneau, Alaska, said she is also on the board of the Alaska Federation of Natives and serves as the Chair of its Subsistence Committee; she is also a Harvard trained anthropologist and has done 30 years of research throughout Alaska and the Circumpolar Arctic. So she has some knowledge of subsistence. She introduced other members of the Institute who were all wearing sea otter products and provided written testimony along with a report on SHI's cultural and economic sustainability through traditional arts that she would leave for them. It provides an outline of their sea otter project and offers a number of recommendations that could lessen their impacts on commercial and subsistence resources. MS. WORL said they appreciate the impacts from sea otters on the commercial fisheries, and their own tribal members are advising them of the impacts on subsistence resources. However, she was concerned that this legislation was not the solution to the reported impacts. It could ultimately, if it were found to be legal and implemented, undermine their efforts to address the impacts in a positive way and possibly threaten a sustainable sea otter population. She said from the onset that the harvest they are supporting will be well within the presently known scientific potential of a logical removal level from data provided by the Fish and Wildlife Service and their harvests area are also initiated in areas that are identified by the Alaska Division of Fish and Game. In addition, they are governed by their own traditional values: honoring and respecting the environment as they use the resources, protecting the environment and the resources for future generations, using traditional knowledge and incorporating new or scientific knowledge into their practices. Through the state of Alaska's support, she explained how SHI expanded its sustainable arts program to include sea otter. Basically, the project will support the harvest of 250 sea otters annually over a three-year period and includes the tanning of sea otter hides in an Alaskan tanner and the instruction of skin sewing to 50 individuals. They believe that this project can alleviate the impacts that are evident in their region while at the same time providing revenues to individuals in economically depressed communities who often have no other alternative to gainful employment. It will also allow them to revive ancient traditions that were near extinction as a result of the decimation of the sea otter population under the Russian occupation. She showed one of the hats that were just made in one of their classes in Kake. 3:42:50 PM LEE KADINGER, COO, Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), Juneau, Alaska, said the "bounty bill" may not be the best vehicle and that they believe there are other ways the state can help support various programs like the sea otter project. One of the issues they have been having is with the definition "significantly altered;" for instance, some federal agents will say his hat is not significantly altered, and the state's resources could help them clarify that these items before them are significantly altered and can enter the retail market. "Who would start a business if you are always in fear that you would be arrested for making a hat like this? And that's exactly what the situation is," he said. The $28,000 fiscal note would allow them to expand their project and enter further communities - into the Aleutians up north, if need be - and throughout Southeast Alaska to make a more statewide presence. Finally, Mr. Kadinger said they could expand the marketing of sea otter products. From an economist's standpoint, rather than pushing supply, they would pull it through larger demand; more people interested in purchasing sea otter products would lead to more sustainably harvested sea otters. 3:44:38 PM SENATOR DYSON asked if there are areas in Southeast that they don't utilize for harvesting 250 otters. MS. WORL said the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) identified Petersburg, Kake, and Yakutat as areas they thought would be helpful to fishermen and other people, but they have concentrated primarily in Yakutat. Harvesting is not allowed in Glacier Bay, so that population is growing. It's also a matter of recruiting hunters and they had not been as successful in Kake where they would like to have a little more harvest as well as in the Prince of Wales (POW) area. SENATOR DYSON asked if they object to bounty hunters doing what SHI is not able to do in areas where folks are not hunting at all. MS. WORL responded that they don't support bounty hunting. According to their historical values and federal law, there has to be some use of the animal. SENATOR DYSON related that beaver are a problem in his area and ADF&G would let people trap there, but the hides are not worth enough to make it economic. So, people contribute a "bounty" to incentivize trappers to get rid of the nuisance. Is she not open to that type of management? MS. WORLAND replied saying that she would have to go back to the development of a market. A market can be created; they have tested it successfully in Santa Fe, which is the largest Indian market. 3:48:00 PM SENATOR FRENCH said this issue is covered by federal law and they struggle with how to increase the number of sea otters that can be legally taken by Natives for subsistence purposes. What is holding Native individuals back from taking more sea otters? MS. WORL replied a couple of things; it is costly to go out and hunt for one. They have introduced in federal legislation a subsistence support production program that would help hunters for food some security to offset the price of their oil. Her program offers a potential solution if they can accept that the scientific numbers will allow them to harvest an additional 1,300 sea otter. Those areas of abundance could be targeted. 3:49:24 PM GREG BROWN, representing himself, Juneau, Alaska, said the future of the shellfish industry doesn't look good and it has nothing to do with sea otters; it has to do with ocean acidification and the ability to calcify their shells. This is not the first issue that has ever come up with sea otters around the world. In fact there are dozens. For instance, Southern California had all the same issues we have and they decided to embrace the sea otters as opposed to harvesting them. They were able to grow it to a $150 million business. The City of Santa Barbara alone employs over 388 people in the sea otter viewing business. Their financial report said for every dollar they lost in the shellfish industry they made two dollars back in the viewing industry. Today, viewing is a $50 billion industry in the U.S. and its growing by 6 percent a year and looking back, it's totally recession proof, too. MR. BROWN proposed that they should put a bill together to either buy out the shell fishermen or help them transition to a maritime industry with a growth future. A computer analysis of the industry showed that it would be flat at best in 24 years. Whereas wildlife viewing in Alaska is a $600 million industry today and it will be well over $2 billion in 24 years. 3:51:34 PM Further he said, if SB 60 passes, they would just be back here in a few years saying there's not enough shellfish and that the bounty should be raised to $500. Rewriting the bill to be constructive would give a lot of nice people in the shellfish industry a job in a growth maritime industry. SENATOR FRENCH asked him to talk a little bit about his background on the economic advantages of wildlife viewing versus harvesting. MR. BROWN said for most of his career he ran billion dollar corporations; he was president and CEO of Siemens and Schneider in Latin American and Canada (largest electrical business in the world). He retired a few years ago and moved to beautiful Juneau, Alaska, and runs a business called "Weather Permitting Alaska," an environmental investment business that invests in alternative energy and other things. He is actively in a whale watching business and that is one of the most incredible businesses he has ever seen. They have 80 percent ROI and the growth is incredible; they are booked all the time. Wildlife viewing is one of the best growing businesses in the world. SENATOR DYSON asked if that $600 million in the viewing industry was from cruise ships. MR. BROWN replied that figure included everything: Denali is about $200 million; Southeast is about $300 million, and about $100 million in the Kenai. SENATOR DYSON asked if the implication was that our commercial fishermen here could all transfer to another job and learn to take out tourists. MR. BROWN replied only the shell fishermen, not the commercial finfish industry. 3:54:29 PM JERRY MCCUNE, lobbyist, Cordova District Fishermen United, Cordova, Alaska, said it was good to have this issue on the table even though a bounty in addition to being illegal isn't necessarily the way to go. Sea otters had rebounded "big time" in Prince William Sound after the oil spill. His problem is with the federal agency that he has been asking for a population assessment from for years. If the sea otter population gets down to where it should be, then you get into the Marine Mammal Protection Act and all kinds of trouble. That happened in the Aleutians. MR. MCCUNE said he wasn't blaming all the problems on sea otters; there were earthquakes, ocean warming and other things. He hadn't had a dungeness fishery for a long time, but he could tell them that the little crabs go into the shallow water and get eaten fast; the shells on the islands are half a foot deep from sea otters. Sea otters need a lot of food to survive and once they eat themselves out of an area, they move on, and they are moving down toward Yakutat now. He said sea Otters are at an all-time high in Prince William Sound and he was not advocating killing them off, but he wanted to push the federal agencies to do a better job of managing them not just protecting. He also took exception with the shellfish industry that is still viable in Southeast because it had already crashed in Yakutat. The Bering Sea is still thriving, because it's very deep, so sea otters have a hard time getting down that far. Basically he thought there is room for both and this conversation is very useful. 3:58:19 PM TINA BROWN, representing herself, Juneau, Alaska, opposed SB 60. She said sea otters are a key-stone species that are necessary for a healthy near-shoreline ecosystem for some sea mammals, birds and finfish including salmon and herring. Because of the near extermination of sea otters during the Russian trade, no one alive today has seen a healthy Southeast Alaska near-shore ecosystem (confirmed by all sea otter biologists). When sea otters are present sea urchins are kept in check and kelps flourish providing habitat for fishes, marine birds, mammals; the finfish industry can actually benefit from the presence of sea otters. They also reduce greenhouse gases, which benefits everyone. She explained that sea otters have a narrow limited home range and unsupervised take like this bounty proposes could cause unsustainability. Whether the Southeast population is at optimum sustainable population is not known and may even be a candidate for the MMPA right now. MS. BROWN said that ADF&G is doing sea otter studies and had a sea otter symposium last February 21. Sea otter numbers in the Aleutians are low and it's irresponsible to encourage take in those areas. SB 60 disregards the large and growing tourism industry; sea otter viewing is popular and lucrative. Allen Marine in Sitka started out with sea otter viewing. MS. BROWN said this bill is getting negative attention nationally already; it seems to support circumventing the MMPA for predator control and Alaska already has a tarnished image. 4:00:55 PM KATHY HANSON, Executive Director, Southeast Alaska Fishermen's Alliance (SEAFA), Juneau, Alaska, supported SB 60. This legislation is a possible way to help manage the ecosystem and maintain a sustainable shellfish industry and sea otters in Southeast Alaska, she said. If sea otters continue to grow the way they normally do, they will expand into other areas quickly and then starve themselves out. At the point your shellfish resources in the area have been killed off. When she started SEAFA 10 years ago, she talked to the Fish and Wildlife Service who basically said sea otters would grow, die off, and the population would stabilize. She asked about the shellfish resources and was told they would need to be listed on the Endangered Species Act. That is what commercial fishermen are concerned about; they don't want to totally do away with every single sea otter, but they want to find a nice level where everyone who likes to eat shellfish can do that as well as view sea otters. SENATOR BISHOP suggested going through Russian/American Company shipping logs for information on sea otter pelts to establish a baseline. MS. HANSON said she knew of one Fish and Wildlife biologist who was looking for funding to do that. 4:04:09 PM MAX WORHATCH, representing himself, Petersburg, Alaska, supported SB 60. He said he has been a dungeness fisherman for over 20 years and had seen firsthand what otter predation can do to productive crab grounds. The economic loss is very apparent already and this is a positive way the state can address the impact of otter predation on valuable state resources. CHAIR GIESSEL found no further testifiers and closed public testimony. 4:05:20 PM SENATOR STEDMAN said he represented District Q, which is mainly coastal Southeast, and he recognized there are some legal issues to work on and hoped they could be addressed in the Judiciary Committee. He also recognized that this issue is in the early stages of discussion and he looked forward to any recommendations that the committee wants to put forward. It's timely that the State of Alaska stands up for the people in the state; it's getting to the point where a lot of residents in the outlying communities are suffering. There is interest from the Sealaska Heritage Foundation in creating sea otter products, but they are having problems doing that as evidenced by the "significantly altered" hat that didn't qualify - and you can't even put a zipper in a vest! 4:06:52 PM SENATOR MICCICHE thanked the sponsor for opening this discussion that is social, nutritional and cultural as well as economic. Speaking for South Central Alaska, he said that mollusks and crustaceans have literally disappeared where they were counted on by families 30 years ago. He appreciated Senator Stedman bringing it up as a great way to get some attention and start a discussion about a plan forward for Alaskans. He had a problem with how quickly people are ready to write off generations of commercial fisheries where people have been involved for generations. SENATOR DYSON said he wanted to be identified with those previous remarks. Maybe they should think about ranking different industries and ways of making a living. For him providing good food and using the animal for an industry outranks providing good entertainment. He also agreed that the legality of SB 60 should be discussed in the Judiciary Committee. SENATOR STEDMAN said he took that advice seriously; "bounty" connotes wild and crazy people shooting up things and that is not what they want to talk about. 4:09:55 PM SENATOR FRENCH said he appreciated Senator Stedman's remarks, but he still thought there was a way to work within the committee to help with things like the fuel costs so more sea otters could be harvested legally. 4:10:31 PM SENATOR DYSON moved to report SB 60 from committee to the next committee of referral with attached fiscal note and individual recommendations. CHAIR GIESSEL announced that, without objection, SB 60 passed from the Senate Resources Standing Committee.