ALFA Staff
Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?
Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?
ALFA Staff
Halibut Catch Sharing Plan Update
Halibut Catch Sharing Plan Update

Halibut Catch Sharing Plan Update

The Council voted to analyze alternatives to reallocate up to 5% of the combined charter commercial catch limit to the charter sector in Areas 2C and 3A.  That translates to analyzing up to a 27% increase in the charter allocation in 2C and up to a 28% increase in the 3A charter allocation.  In terms of pounds, that is 223,000 pounds (worth $11 million in quota share assets) in Area 2C and 603,000 pounds (worth $29 million in QS assets) in Area 3A.

 

The final statement of the motion did get amended to identify compensated allocation via the RQE as the Council’s preferred approach to reallocation, and to identify that the Council will table or “refine” the uncompensated reallocation alternatives if the RQE funding mechanism is authorized by Congress AND established by the Council.  In other words, the commercial fleet is being held hostage to the RQE being implemented—and the Council STILL might vote to reallocate quota even with the RQE mechanisms in place—at least they have held open that option.


Council member Andy Mezirow, the charter operator on the Council, made the motion and led the charge.  Cora Campbell identified factually incorrect statements in the purpose and need statement and led an effort to withdraw Area 2C from the reallocation action. Council members John Jensen, Kenny Down and Steve Marx voted with Cora on the 2C amendment.  Of note, state representatives from Alaska, Washington and Oregon voted against Cora’s motion. After amendments, Cora, John and Kenny voted against the main motion and pointed out that further analysis of reallocation would destabilize the commercial sector and tear apart coastal communities.  Every other Council member voted to analyze the alternatives for uncompensated reallocation.


Thank you to all who sent comments or provided testimony during the meeting.  Every letter and every comment matters. 

For updates sign up for emails from halibutcoalition@gmail.com or join Facebook Halibut Coalition.

To review the timeline of this issue, click below:

 Development of the Council’s GHL and other halibut charter policies by year of Council action 

Halibut Catch Sharing Plan ACTION ALERT

The Halibut Catch Sharing Plan is under review by the Council in February 2022 and the charter fleet is asking for more commercial quota to be reallocated to the charter sector—this despite the fact that the CSP allows charter operators to lease commercial quota and the council has approved a Recreational Quota Entity program to allow the charter fleet to purchase commercial quota (once the funding mechanism is approved by Congress).  

The NPFMC is taking up a scheduled review of the Halibut Catch Sharing Plan (CSP) Feb 1-10.  Some charter organizations are working to take more uncompensated quota from the commercial sector, despite the CSP allowance for charter operators to lease commercial quota and the Recreational Quota Entity’s (RQE) proposal to allow a charter entity to purchase commercial quota for use by the charter sector.  The RQE authority to collect fees pends Congressional action; when/if passed, this will allow the RQE to purchase up to 10% of 2C QS and 12% of 3A QS. The Halibut Catch Sharing Plan (CSP) was implemented in 2014 to end the reallocation of halibut from the commercial to the charter fleet. 

NPFMC meeting info and analysis is at http://meetings.npfmc.org/Meeting/Details/2753 Agenda Item D1.

Written comments must be received by COB 1/28/22; oral testimony at the SSC (1/31), AP (2/1) and NPFMC (2/8).

COMMENT PROCEDURES.

1.        Written comments must be submitted electronically by 5PM AST January 28.

a.       Go to http://meetings.npfmc.org/Meeting/Details/2753 and scroll down to item D1. 

b.       Click on “comment now”.  Recommend typing up comments ahead of time so you can copy/past or attach.  Written comments will not be made public until after comment period closes

2.       Oral comments will be @Feb 1 at the Advisory Panel and @ February 8 at the NPFMC.  The links for signup will be activated later.  And you will need to call in by phone; instructions will be provided on the meeting website.

For updates sign up for emails from halibutcoalition@gmail.com or join Facebook Halibut Coalition.

To review the timeline of this issue, click below:

 Development of the Council’s GHL and other halibut charter policies by year of Council action 


We’re all richer thanks to nature’s dividend

Thursday, December 16, 2021 6:26pm - Juneau Empire

By Sam Skaggs

Much like a bank, Southeast Alaska’s natural capital provides “dividends” year after year. Our region’s network of coastal-temperate rainforests, rich estuaries, freshwater aquatic ecosystems, and the near-shore and off-shore marine waters each provide critical ecosystem services that benefit our local communities, national economy, and even global trade. Several years ago, a few of us started to refer to Southeast Alaska as a “SeaBank” in acknowledgement that the region’s forests, marine environment and freshwater aquatic ecosystems produce tremendous economic output that benefits a wide range of shareholders, including those of us who live here. In 2017, the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust created the SeaBank Program to help quantify the total value of SeaBank’s ecosystem services, especially the services that are less visible but are essential to the economic stability and resiliency of our region.

• Sam Skaggs, recently retired, was a registered investment adviser with over 30 years’ experience managing portfolios and giving financial advice to individuals and organizations in Alaska. Now living in Sitka, Skaggs was also President of the Skaggs Foundation, a family foundation that funded conservation projects and helped build community in Alaska beginning in 1988.Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire.

Final Action on BSAI Halibut

On Monday, November 13, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council took final action on BSAI abundance-based management of halibut bycatch.  The council adopted a motion that is a hybrid of alternatives 3 and 4— in other words, the bycatch reductions are not as deep as those included in Alternative 4, but overall the motion was A LOT better than alternative 3. The motion is below. Here are some key points to help you understand the impacts:
 
1. Regardless of abundance, the halibut bycatch cap for the Amendment 80 fleet will not go higher than the current cap (1745 metric tons)
2. Likewise, caps do not go lower than 1,134 metric tons—again regardless of abundance--but that floor was included in ALL alternatives under consideration.
3. Between the bycatch ceiling (1745 metric tons) and the floor (1134 metric tons) bycatch caps will track abundance (indexed to both the halibut setline survey and the Bering Sea trawl survey)
4. Caps at very low levels of halibut abundance are 5% lower than the caps identified in alternative 3 regardless of the trawl survey index, which provides a measure of protection to the directed fishery (bycatch of mature halibut -- which are sampled by the setline survey -- are deducted from the area in which the bycatch is taken and come directly off the top before the directed fishery catch limits are set)
5. When halibut abundance is low (vs. very low), trawl bycatch caps will be reduced 25% (trawl survey index low) or 20% (trawl survey index high) below the existing cap.
 
Deputy Commissioner Rachel Baker made the motion and worked hard to build support for this compromise position.  The motion passed 8-3, with Oregon and two of the three Washington representatives voting against it.  Kenny Down and NMFS acting regional administrator Doug Mecum voted in favor.  This is a significant step toward reducing the impact of bycatch on halibut stocks, halibut fisheries, and the fishing communities that depend on the halibut resource. 
 
THANK YOU to everyone who submitted written testimony, called in to testify, or supported ALFA’s work over the past six years while we played a lead role in reducing halibut bycatch.
The action must still be approved by the Secretary of Commerce (likely) and will also likely be challenged in court by the Amendment 80 fleet—so!  More work ahead but still a milestone!

Council cuts Alaska halibut bycatch caps for groundfish fleet

 by Jessica Hathaway -National Fishermen

December 13th, 2021

With four proposed alternatives on the docket to amend the management of halibut bycatch in Alaska’s Amendment 80 groundfish trawl fleet, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted Monday, Dec. 13, to approve a compromise between Alternatives 3 and 4.

“The preferred alternative balances the interests of the two largest halibut user groups in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands — the directed commercial halibut fishery and the Amendment 80 sector — by establishing abundance-based halibut [bycatch] limits for the Amendment 80 sector,” said Rachel Baker, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, who devised and presented the compromise to the council.

The bulk of public comments called for significant changes, with many halibut stakeholders urging council members to support Alternative 4.

“While that would be a conservation and management action many in the public comments desired, I found it impractical at this time,” said Council Member Kenny Down, former CEO of Blue North Fisheries, of Alternative 4, which called for the deepest cuts to halibut bycatch in the A80 fleet, which harvests a variety of flatfish, rockfish, Atka mackerel, Pacific Ocean perch, and Pacific cod in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

In the end, the council voted to manage the trawl fleet’s halibut bycatch based on abundance, not cut and dry hard caps, so all halibut user groups would be equally responsible for and responsive to shifts in abundance.

“While not as significant a reduction as was included in Alternative 4, the hybrid retains the existing bycatch limit at times of high abundance and reduces the bycatch limit by 35 percent below the existing limit at very low levels of halibut abundance — both substantial improvement over alternative 3,” Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association in Sitka, told NF.

Linda Behnken

Read on National Fishermen

UA and National Lab Guide Two Alaska Communities Closer to Meeting Energy Goals

Alaska Center for Energy and Power

UA and National Lab Guide Two Alaska Communities Closer to Meeting Energy Goals

For the past few months, community members from Ouzinkie and the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association have each worked with national laboratories on projects to address their community’s remote energy needs. 

They are two of 11 islanded and remote community energy projects across the country receiving technical assistance from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project. Ouzinkie and ALFA projects are facilitated by local regional partners from the University of Alaska Fairbanks’ Alaska Center for Energy and Power and the Institute of Social and Economic Research. 

The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association is a collective of fishermen from throughout Alaska, centered in Sitka. The fishing fleet relies on diesel fuel for all of its energy, and its ETIPP project is seeking opportunities to reduce fishermen’s dependence on diesel. ALFA’s Chandler Kemp has been working with the labs, along with ALFA’s executive director, Linda Behnken. “NREL and Sandia National Labs are helping ALFA envision an energy transition for the fishing fleet. The labs are helping design a hybrid diesel-electric vessel and developing a long-term feasibility study of hydrogen fuel cell systems,” said Kemp. 

Meanwhile, the City of Ouzinkie sits off the northeastern coast of Kodiak Island. In efforts to keep electricity flowing for its 150 residents, the Ouzinkie is currently 100% reliant on diesel fuel for generators to power the town — a situation common around Alaska. Mayor Elijah Jackson described it as their “most problematic energy challenge.” Ouzinkie has a hydro turbine, but needed repairs have been postponed by Covid-19 delays, Jackson explained. 

“With the hydro running, our fuel bill is cut in half,” he said. “Right now, we are spending over $17,000 a month on fuel, and this has been a burden to our entire community. The ETIPP project is helping us find renewable energy sources to help offset the reliance on diesel fuel.”

The City of Ouzinkie continues to collaborate with the Native Village of Ouzinkie tribe and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and others to optimize its use of renewables and storage.

Three additional ETIPP projects in Alaska are facilitated by Renewable Energy Alaska Project as a regional partner. They include a variety of energy storage, hydro and resource assessment projects in Wainwright, Dillingham and Sitka. Communities interested in applying for the second round of projects can do so through spring 2022.

For more information, follow the Alaska Rural Energy Partnership Facebook page. Communities interested in applying for the upcoming cohort can visit the DOE website and contact Patty Eagan at pmeagan@alaska.edu.

 

A fishing boat in Southeast Alaska. Photo by Josh Roper Photography.

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