HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON FISHERIES April 27, 1995 8:48 a.m. MEMBERS PRESENT Representative Alan Austerman, Chairman Representative Carl Moses, Vice Chair Representative Scott Ogan Representative Gary Davis Representative Kim Elton MEMBERS ABSENT None COMMITTEE CALENDAR CSSB 21(RES): "An Act relating to penalties for violations of commercial fishing laws." PASSED OUT OF COMMITTEE *HJR 44: Proposing postage stamps honoring wild Alaska salmon and centuries of continued use of wild Alaska salmon for subsistence, sport, and commercial fish harvesters. PASSED OUT OF COMMITTEE PRESENTATION: "The Economic Impact of the Shoreside Processing Industry Upon Alaska During 1993" (* First public hearing) WITNESS REGISTER RICK LAUBER, LOBBYIST Pacific Seafood Processors Association 321 Highland Drive Juneau, AK 99801 Phone: 586-6366 POSITION STATEMENT: Provided presentation PREVIOUS ACTION BILL: SB 21 SHORT TITLE: FINES FOR COMMERCIAL FISHING VIOLATIONS SPONSOR(S): SENATOR(S) HALFORD,Green JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION 01/06/95 19 (S) PREFILE RELEASED - 1/6/95 01/16/95 19 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S) 01/16/95 19 (S) RES, JUD 01/25/95 (S) RES AT 03:30 PM BUTROVICH RM 205 01/25/95 (S) MINUTE(RES) 01/27/95 (S) RES AT 03:30 PM BUTROVICH RM 205 02/03/95 (S) MINUTE(RES) 02/06/95 180 (S) RES RPT CS 5DP SAME TITLE 02/06/95 180 (S) FISCAL NOTE (COURT #2, LAW-FY97 #3) 02/06/95 180 (S) ZERO FISCAL NOTE (DPS #1) 02/22/95 (S) JUD AT 01:30 PM BELTZ ROOM 211 02/27/95 (S) JUD AT 01:30 PM BELTZ ROOM 211 02/27/95 (S) MINUTE(JUD) 02/28/95 417 (S) JUD RPT 3DP 2NR (RES)CS 02/28/95 417 (S) PREVIOUS FNS (COURT #2, LAW #3) 02/28/95 417 (S) PREVIOUS ZERO FN (DPS #1) 02/28/95 417 (S) ADDITIONAL REFERRAL TO FIN 03/08/95 536 (S) FIN RPT 6DP 1NR (RES)CS 03/08/95 536 (S) ZERO FNS (DPS #4, COURT #5, LAW #6) 03/08/95 (S) FIN AT 09:00 AM SENATE FINANCE 532 03/08/95 (S) MINUTE(FIN) 03/09/95 (S) RLS AT 04:15 PM FAHRENKAMP RM 203 03/09/95 (S) MINUTE(RLS) 03/16/95 645 (S) RULES RPT 2CAL 1NR 3/16/95 03/16/95 645 (S) READ THE SECOND TIME 03/16/95 645 (S) RES CS ADOPTED UNAN CONSENT 03/16/95 645 (S) ADVANCED TO THIRD READING UNAN CONSENT 03/16/95 645 (S) READ THE THIRD TIME CSSB 21(RES) 03/16/95 646 (S) PASSED Y18 N- E2 03/16/95 651 (S) TRANSMITTED TO (H) 03/17/95 765 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S) 03/17/95 765 (H) FSH, JUDICIARY, FINANCE 04/26/95 (H) FSH AT 05:00 PM CAPITOL 124 04/27/95 (H) FSH AT 08:00 AM CAPITOL 124  BILL: HJR 44 SHORT TITLE: POSTAGE STAMP HONORING ALASKA SALMON SPONSOR(S): REPRESENTATIVE(S) ELTON,Bunde JRN-DATE JRN-PG ACTION 04/22/95 1451 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S) 04/22/95 1451 (H) FISHERIES 04/26/95 (H) FSH AT 05:00 PM CAPITOL 124 04/27/95 (H) FSH AT 08:00 AM CAPITOL 124 ACTION NARRATIVE TAPE 95-25, SIDE A Number 000 CHAIRMAN ALAN AUSTERMAN called the meeting to order at 8:48 p.m. and noted for the record that Representatives Davis, Elton and Moses were in attendance and a quorum was present. SB 21 - FINES FOR COMMERCIAL FISHING VIOLATIONS Number 018 SENATOR RICK HALFORD, Prime Sponsor, SB 21, testified saying, "This bill is familiar to those who were around last year but it's a shadow of its former self. Last year both houses passed legislation that increased the maximum violation penalties from $3000 (to) $6000, to $6000, $12000. These are maximums, not minimum mandatory, not minimums and the Court of Appeals' guidelines for the application of maximum penalties are fairly stringent in that they have to represent the worst violations in that class of violations. The bill this year only adds an increase in third and subsequent violations. It is fairly straightforward." SENATOR HALFORD continued, "The department (Department of Public Safety) in 1993, really went out and worked at enforcement as a deterrent to some of the activities that were going on in some of the fisheries. Former Deputy Commissioner Swackhammer was one of the people that provided a lot of the original information for this bill and a lot of the encouragement to go forward with it. I believe in the worst kinds of cases that you need more potential deterrent for multiple violators than are provided in existing law. I don't think it will apply to that many people, but it will be thought of by other people who will avoid those violations." CHAIRMAN AUSTERMAN agreed, "You've got to get the fines up. It makes it a deterrent for them to even consider doing their illegal fishing across the lines." Number 087 REPRESENTATIVE GARY DAVIS moved that CSSB 21(RES) be moved from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections. HJR 44 - POSTAGE STAMP HONORING ALASKA SALMON REPRESENTATIVE KIM ELTON, PRIME SPONSOR, HJR 44, testified saying, "This resolution, Mr. Chair, I think is a simple way and a free way of raising the awareness of wild Alaska salmon, especially in the domestic market place. It will make it easier, I think, to educate people who have some concerns, who think that all salmon is endangered. I think that it has advantages to both the sport fishing industry by raising awareness of one of Alaska's most important and unique resources in the sport fishing industry. I think it also has value to the commercial fishing industry as anything that starts delineating the different species of wild Alaska salmon I think is going to help in the marketing of salmon in the Lower 48." CHAIRMAN AUSTERMAN agreed, "Anytime we can get out and promote our wild salmon, we'll be doing just exactly that and this is obviously a good method of doing it." REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS said, "Do people consider figures on stamps as being something like a conservation (cause), like this is an endangered thing? He also asked if specifically the term "wild" would be used on the stamps. REPRESENTATIVE ELTON replied, "The resolution says wild and natural Alaska salmon. I would hate to assume what the final stamp will look like, what either the art work or the printing will be," and agreed there is a misconception that wild salmon are endangered. REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS reiterated that he hoped this effort didn't backfire to encourage conservation measures. Number 173 REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS moved HJR 173 out of committee. There were no objections. PRESENTATION: "THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF THE SHORESIDE PROCESSING INDUSTRY UPON ALASKA DURING 1993." Number 197 RICK LAUBER, LOBBYIST, PACIFIC SEAFOOD PROCESSORS ASSOCIATION, presented testimony on "The Economic Impact of the Shoreside Processing Industry Upon Alaska During 1993". He said, "Several years ago, the state and our industry was embroiled in a controversy largely centering around the North Pacific Fishery Management Council over the allocation of resources. We stood a significant chance that the harvesters that catch and deliver fish to plants located on shore would be preempted by the large factory trawler fleet that operates off the coast for groundfish pollock and pacific cod. So this issue was a major one and would have significant impacts on the state of Alaska and certainly on the shorebased processing industry. So we wanted to show and see what impacts actually the shorebased processing industry overall had on the state of Alaska. So we commissioned Pacific Associates." MR. LAUBER continued, "Basically what the report shows (is) that the seafood industry is Alaska's largest employer. It's the largest private employer in the state and the second largest taxpayer in the state of Alaska. There are about 550 seafood processors, most of that number, of course, are small operations but in total they process about 2.7 billion pounds of seafood. Mr. Cotter extended those to say that daily, that would feed about one million people. So there's a significant amount of seafood processed in this state. (Indisc.) the processors paid the harvesters, fishermen about $1 billion, a little over, and we employed the full-time equivalent...now this is just the shorebased processing industry, this does not include the fishing or harvesting sector." He proceeded to provide other details of the industry benefits to the committee members. Number 297 CHAIRMAN AUSTERMAN asked if all seafoods were covered within the scope of this report. MR. LAUBER said yes. REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS said that this presentation was of real value since the topic of value of commercial fisheries is frequently raised by his constituents. Number 330 MR. LAUBER continued, "One of the things that is a problem for our industry: I, one time heard a person making a presentation about the seafood industry in general and they characterized it as the hidden industry. Now those of you that live in coastal communities that are either primarily or have a significant part in the seafood industry, will recognize the significance of it, at least in your particular area." He then described some modern processing plants found on the Aleutian Chain and the huge capital investment they represent and how much of the state is unaware of these plants. He added that he and Representative Moses were around in pre-oil revenue days when the fishing industry was the largest revenue producer in the state and it will probably grow in value again. REPRESENTATIVE DAVIS pointed out that there are as many people employed by the seafood industry as work for the government. REPRESENTATIVE CARL MOSES said there is a great need for a small boat harbor in Dutch Harbor for resident fishers. ADJOURNMENT CHAIRMAN AUSTERMAN thanked Mr. Lauber and adjourned the meeting at 9:13 p.m.