The North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Alaska Board of Fisheries are moving toward programs that limit access to Gulf of Alaska fisheries. These plans are expected to allocate fishing privileges based on past fishing history. Such plans are monumental in terms of the array of issues that need to be addressed as well as the long–term changes that will affect fishery–dependent coastal communities for generations to come.

How to Divide the Fishery Pie?

Many questions and concerns have been aired about limited access programs, raising great debate:

• Will investments that vessel owner have made in their business be secure?
• How will future young fishermen have opportunities to enter the fishery and build a business sufficient to support a family?
• Will skippers and crew and their sweat equity be recognized as fishery managers allocate access to the resource?
• Improved conservation is a promise of ending the race for fish but will these be measurable goals and will conservation achievement be a condition of continuing the program over time?
• Will there be incentives to transition fishing practices to the cleanest gear types?
• What about the small communities whose residents may not have been recent participants in the fishery; will the program create opportunity for them?
• Will fishing privileges be allocated to people who catch the fish or to absentee owners who may not live in our communities or be involved in the fishery?
• Will independent fishermen be free to deliver their catch to any processor, or will the program jeopardize market competition?
• Will local jobs be a factor in decisions that promote economic efficiency?

A Taste of What Alaskans Are Saying

This is not meant to be an exhaustive treatment of the issues, hopes or fears related to the emerging fishery management plans. It is just a taste of what some Alaskans are saying.

I was raised in a commercial fishing family in the village of Port Lions. I have crewed in various fisheries throughout my life. Fishing has been my primary source of income. I put myself through college, coming home to fish every summer…Currently I am living in the village of Old Harbor with my partner. Together we are raising a family on a fishing based income. I believe that commercial fishing is vital to us and our community both economically and socially.

Historically for many families in our village, fishing as been their only source of income. Fishing is what brings us together and gives us meaningful and honest work. It is what we tell stories about. It’s how we get to know each other. Fish is what we eat at family and village gatherings. Fishing is what moms and dads are proud of doing and what kids want to do when they get old enough….

However, I have seen a huge decline in the number of people able to support their families fishing. As a result, young people are no longer staying in the fishing business. In Old Harbor, my partner is the only man under the age of 45 who is operating his own commercial fishing boat. Because of the decline in fishing opportunities, young people are moving out of the villages and losing a huge part of their identity and culture.

It is my hope that with more opportunity to fish, families will continue to be able to live in their village homes and still be fishermen and still have kids learning to fish and work at a young age.

Rural fishermen have historically been able to move from one fishery to another when economics and/or availability changed. Years ago many rural fishermen focused on codfish jigging, then salmon was king and ebbed and flowed, herring came and went, in the ‘60s it was king crab, then shrimp and Tanner crab. When individual fishing quotas for halibut came in with their allocation based on catches in the late ‘80s, many rural fishermen with life long histories of fishing halibut were, in those years, focusing on herring and salmon. They did not receive enough halibut quota to continue in the fishery. When herring and salmon declined in the ‘90s they either left fishing altogether or were forced to “buy in” to the halibut fishery. Now with groundfish rationalization there is fear of being regulated out of potential fisheries that could provide economic stimulus for rural communities. The Community Fishing Quota is a fishery quota trust that will ensure that fishermen from rural communities continue to have access to the resource….

Standards for Successful Limited Access Programs:

AMCC supports limited access to our fisheries where it is needed to maintain resource conservation and a healthy economic environment. But it's equally important that certain critical standards are met to ensure conservation is well served and to protect the working waterfront of our fishery–dependent communities. Legislation authorizing such programs and the programs themselves need to incorporate a few key standards:

• Preserve entry opportunities for the next generation of independent fishing families to participate in our fishing heritage;
• Maximize the allocation of fishing privileges to individuals who catch the fish; minimizing the amount that can be held by absentee owners and leased to others;
• Reward clean fishing practices and establish clear and measurable conservation objectives;
• Ensure competitive markets; and
• Fishing privileges are not allocated in perpetuity. Quota programs should be limited in duration, subject to regular reviews to allow adjustments as needed and continuation contingent on achieving their goals.