By Paul Voosen Feb. 5, 2020 , 2:00 PM
The oceans’ great continent-wrapping currents, each one moving as much water as all the world’s rivers combined, can rightly be considered the planet’s circulatory system. And this circulation, it appears, has started to thump faster: For nearly 25 years the currents have been rapidly speeding up, partly because of global warming.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12th 2020
Contact: Tara Racine, ALFA, 907-747-3400, alfa.outreach@gmail.com
Local Fishing Group Seeks Applicants for Crew Training Program
The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA), a Sitka-based fishing group, is seeking applicants for its Crew Training Program. Through a safe and well-guided entry level experience, the program aims to provide young people an opportunity to gain experience in, as well as an understanding of, commercial fishing and its importance to supporting coastal communities.
ALFA is thrilled to announce the expansion of our Crew Training Program for the 2020 season. Formalized as part of ALFA’s Young Fishermen Initiative in 2015, in late 2017 ALFA was awarded a $142,000 national grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to increase more deckhands statewide. In 2019 ALFA was awarded several additional grants to support this program from groups including the Edgerton Foundation, the City and Borough of Sitka, the Alaska Community Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. ALFA is very grateful for the support of these organizations and from our community. According to NFWF, “the work funded by these grants will result in improved management that strengthens the welfare of fishermen and local communities, promoting healthy fish stocks and healthy fisheries.”
Last year the program had over 110 local, national, and international applicants, but ALFA continues to put an emphasis on building economic opportunities in southeast Alaska. Annually about 10-15 deckhand finalists are hired by participating skippers and make it onto the water. ALFA continues to strive for an increase in the number of participating trained deckhands, skippers, and fishing vessels each year. As Executive Director of ALFA, Linda Behnken explains, “With support from NFWF, we plan to expand the program to include more boats, crew, and communities.”
Lea LeGardeur, a crew alumni of the training program, says of her experience in the program: “Beyond giving me an entry point into an industry that I otherwise would have had a harder getting into…the skippers in the program all wanted to teach, and sign up to take greenhorns so they could pass on what they know.” Linda Behnken further explains, “Giving young people an introduction to Alaska's commercial fisheries will help sustain our fishing communities and create the next generation of resource stewards.”
ALFA is seeking deckhand applicants to head out fishing this season. Crewmember application period is currently open and will close February 28th, 2020. Applicants must be over 18 years of age. Application information can be found at http://www.alfafish.org/crewtraining/.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 12th 2020
Contact: Tara Racine, ALFA, 907-747-3400, alfa.outreach@gmail.com
Local Fishing Group Seeks Applicants for Crew Training Program
The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA), a Sitka-based fishing group, is seeking applicants for its Crew Training Program. Through a safe and well-guided entry level experience, the program aims to provide young people an opportunity to gain experience in, as well as an understanding of, commercial fishing and its importance to supporting coastal communities.
ALFA is thrilled to announce the expansion of our Crew Training Program for the 2020 season. Formalized as part of ALFA’s Young Fishermen Initiative in 2015, in late 2017 ALFA was awarded a $142,000 national grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to increase more deckhands statewide. In 2019 ALFA was awarded several additional grants to support this program from groups including the Edgerton Foundation, the City and Borough of Sitka, the Alaska Community Foundation and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. ALFA is very grateful for the support of these organizations and from our community. According to NFWF, “the work funded by these grants will result in improved management that strengthens the welfare of fishermen and local communities, promoting healthy fish stocks and healthy fisheries.”
Last year the program had over 110 local, national, and international applicants, but ALFA continues to put an emphasis on building economic opportunities in southeast Alaska. Annually about 10-15 deckhand finalists are hired by participating skippers and make it onto the water. ALFA continues to strive for an increase in the number of participating trained deckhands, skippers, and fishing vessels each year. As Executive Director of ALFA, Linda Behnken explains, “With support from NFWF, we plan to expand the program to include more boats, crew, and communities.”
Lea LeGardeur, a crew alumni of the training program, says of her experience in the program: “Beyond giving me an entry point into an industry that I otherwise would have had a harder getting into…the skippers in the program all wanted to teach, and sign up to take greenhorns so they could pass on what they know.” Linda Behnken further explains, “Giving young people an introduction to Alaska's commercial fisheries will help sustain our fishing communities and create the next generation of resource stewards.”
ALFA is seeking deckhand applicants to head out fishing this season. Crewmember application period is currently open and will close February 28th, 2020. Applicants must be over 18 years of age. Application information can be found at http://www.alfafish.org/crewtraining/.
After a VERY contentious meeting with Canada, the IPHC Commissioners this morning set 2020 halibut season dates and mortality or catch limits. The Alaska area representatives, both charter and commercial, worked hard to arrive at a unanimous Alaska position that met area catch sharing plan minimums and salvaged fishing seasons to the extent supportable by the resource and the painful fixed allocations to Area 2A and 2B (70% fixed; 30% based on surveyed distribution). Huge thanks to the ALFA team for their leadership at the meeting!
IPHC Action February 6, 2020
Halibut season open dates: March 14-November 15th 2020
Catch limits:
2A 1.65 (no reduction per negotiated share)
2B 6.83 Mlbs (no reduction per negotiated historic share agreement)
2C 5.85 million pounds (8.3% reduction from 2019 levels)
3A 12.20 million pounds (10.3% reduction from 2019)
3B 3.12 million pounds (7.6% reduction from 2019)
4A 1.75 million pounds (9.7% reduction from 2019)
4B 1.31 million pounds (9% reduction from 2019)
4CDE 3.90 Mlbs (bycatch averaged over 3 years;FCEY of1.66; 2.5% reduction)
TOTAL 36.60 million pounds for an SPR 42%
Vote: 2 from US and 2 from Canada in favor
January 24, 2020
Mr. Jim Kramer
c/o Ross Strategic
1325 Fourth Ave., Suite 1600
Seattle, WA 98101
J.T. Austin, Natural Resource Policy Advisor
Office of the Governor
PO Box 40002
Olympia, WA 98504
Dear Mr. Kramer and Ms. Austin,
Our organizations represent the commercial salmon fishing industries in Washington, Oregon, California and Alaska. We are writing to thank you for your efforts to plan and implement the Lower Snake River Stakeholder Process over the past eight months and to share with you some of our thoughts about the Draft Report. We appreciate Governor Inslee’s commitment to protecting and restoring the Southern Resident orcas and the salmon populations they rely upon. Protecting orcas from extinction will require rebuilding abundant salmon populations across the Pacific Northwest by protecting, reconnecting and restoring the rivers and streams that salmon need to complete their life cycle.
As the Governor’s Southern Resident Orca Recovery Task Force recognized, restoring the lower Snake River in southeast Washington State is one of our very best salmon recovery opportunities anywhere on the West Coast today. It would recover 140 miles of mainstem river habitat and reconnect endangered salmon and steelhead populations with more than 5,000 miles of largely pristine, protected spawning and rearing habitat upstream in central Idaho, northeast Oregon and southeast Washington. Scientists predict that restoring adequate access for salmon to this once highly productive habitat would result in annual returns of fall and spring/summer Chinook between 600,000 and 1.1 million adults. Rebuilding this type of salmon abundance would deliver huge benefits to endangered orcas, to Northwest ecosystems and to scores of coastal communities from California to Alaska that rely on commercial fishing. All too often, the policy response to declining salmon populations has been to increase hatchery production while reducing harvest. Time and experience have shown us that hatcheries alone are no substitute for productive well-managed salmon habitat (e.g. Hanford Reach). In addition, the steady reduction of fishing opportunity over the last 40 years has hurt many rural coastal communities that may have few alternative economic development options. Far too little attention has been paid to protecting and restoring mainstem river reaches like the lower Snake River.
It should come as no surprise that commercial fishermen are writing to you about restoring salmon habitat. Fishermen, after all, were responsible for the Bonneville Dam having fish ladders and the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Conservation Act having Essential Fish Habitat conservation provisions. Fishermen have a direct stake in the health of the Columbia-Snake River Basin. Salmon spend most of their lives in the ocean in mixed stock schools that range thousands of miles from their natal streams. As such, we fish on stocks that originate from many rivers, including the Columbia and Snake. When salmon populations decline and our fishing opportunities close, we all suffer. For this reason, we all support the protection and restoration of salmon habitat from Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest down through Washington, Oregon and California.
After reviewing the draft version of the Lower Snake River Dams Stakeholder Engagement Report, we appreciate the hard work it took to produce it. Its presentation of the different stakeholder perspectives represents an important step toward increased understanding around a highly complex and difficult issue. We strongly believe that these kinds of conversations must continue. It is essential that people must build trust and work together on inclusive solutions that work for wild salmon and orcas – and coastal and inland communities. We all share a serious concern regarding the Draft Report that we urge you to address in the final version. We find that the Draft Report fails to properly emphasize the role and importance of the commercial fishing sector as critical, longstanding stakeholders in the Columbia-Snake River Basin salmon management and recovery activities. Our members have made tremendous economic, personal and community sacrifices over the past seven decades in order to respond to – and to protect and conserve – declining salmon populations. Our communities today are suffering as a result: reduced harvest means less business activity, job losses – and the stresses that often come with economic downturns and sense of despair. For instance, there were over 3,000 commercial salmon trollers in Washington 30 years ago. Today there are barely 100 left. The Columbia River gillnet fishery has suffered to a greater extent with almost no current day access to historic resources. That dramatic decline can be measured in jobs, and businesses and opportunities lost in many rural coastal communities. It is critical that the final report describe and acknowledge these kinds of impacts to help put other impacts in perspective.
On a more positive note, meaningful salmon recovery – like what a restored lower Snake River would deliver - could be an important economic development opportunity not just for our families and our coastal communities but also for other river communities from the coast to central Idaho. This important and positive story must also be better reflected in the final report. We would like to see a final report that, for example, includes a specific section dedicated to highlighting the important historic relationship that salmon dependent communities have with the Columbia-Snake Basin, the sacrifices that we’ve made and the opportunity that restoring the lower Snake River and healthy fisheries could mean for communities both on the coast and inland. Appropriately, agriculture has a substantive section dedicated to its role in Washington’s economy and its relationship to the Snake and Columbia Rivers. We ask you to include a similar look at the role and status of salmon fishing industries and communities in the final report as well. Salmon recovery IS economic development on the coast of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, California and inland in Idaho as well.
We were disappointed by the small number salmon fishermen that were interviewed for the draft report. Fellow stakeholders and the public remain poorly informed about how fisheries are managed or how declining salmon populations impact coastal and inland fishing communities. The better this is understood by all, the greater our chances of finding real solutions that work for everybody so we can all leverage the opportunities before us today. We have included a number of documents with this letter that help illustrate the importance of the salmon and steelhead fishing culture and economy in Washington and the Pacific Northwest, the losses that have been suffered and sacrifices made, and the opportunity that salmon/steelhead recovery represents, especially for rural communities that today often have few other options - in central Idaho, along the lower Columbia River, on the WA coast, and as far north as Alaska. We appreciate your hard work to host this conversation on what has long been a contentious subject. Increased dialogue and mutual understanding is a critical first step toward collaboration and the development of solutions that can work for us all.
We encourage Governor Inslee to continue his engagement and leadership on this important matter after the release of the final report in March – and we are committed to working with you and others in our region to develop win-win solutions that will assure a vibrant future for both our fishing and our farming communities.
Sincerely,
Linda Behnken
Executive Director
Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association
Sitka, AK
Amy Daugherty
Executive Director
Alaska Trollers Association
Juneau, AK
Joel Kawahara
Vice President
Coastal Trollers Association
Quilcene, WA
Noah Oppenheim
Executive Director
Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen’s Associations
San Francisco, CA
CC:
The Honorable Jay Inslee, Washington State
The Honorable Patty Murray, United States Senate
The Honorable Maria Cantwell, United States Senate
The Honorable Derek Kilmer, House of Representatives
The Honorable Rick Larsen, House of Representatives
The Honorable Pramila Jayapal, House of Representatives
The Honorable Denny Heck, House of Representatives
The Honorable Kate Brown, Oregon State
The Honorable Ron Wyden, United States Senate
The Honorable Jeff Merkley, United States Senate
The Honorable Peter DeFazio, House of Representatives
The Honorable Suzanne Bonamici, House of Representatives
The Honorable Mike Dunleavy, Alaska State
The Honorable Lisa Murkowski, United States Senate
The Honorable Dan Sullivan, United States Senate
The Honorable Don Young, House of Representatives
There are only days left to comment on the proposal to exempt the Tongass National Forest from the National Roadless Rule. Exempting the Tongass from the Roadless Rule would jeopardize fish habitat and fisheries.
Join us on Friday, Dec. 13th from 5:30pm-7:30pm at the ALFA/ASFT office at 304 Baranof St., Sitka, AK (by Market Center) for a letter writing and film screening event. We’ll be serving drinks, seafood chowder and homemade bread, donation recommend.
This is an Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA), Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT), and SeaBank event. Please contact ALFA/ASFT staff at alfa.staff@gmail.com or 907-747-3400 if you have any questions. We hope to see you there!
University of Alaska Southeast’s Maritime Training Center is offering Qualified Member of the Engine Department and Maritime Multi-Skilled Worker classes in Ketchikan, AK September-December of next year (2020). Scholarships are available! Contact UAS at 907-228-4568 and 1-888-550-6177.
