Issue Position: Alaska's Fisheries

Issue Position

Alaska has the most abundant and sustainably managed fisheries in the nation. Alaska harvests have averaged nearly five billion pounds a year for the past 20 years and account for approximately 60 percent of the fish harvested in the United States. If Alaska were a country, it would rank 9th in the world in seafood harvest. Alaska's commercial, sport and subsistence fisheries are at the heart of coastal Alaska and the economic livelihood for more than 60,000 Alaskans who are directly or indirectly employed in the industry. Commercial fisheries contribute $5.8 billion to Alaska's economic output, while Alaskans and visitors spend $800 million annually to sport hunt and fish. Subsistence fisheries fulfill crucial economic, nutritional and cultural needs for many Alaskans. However, probably the most important common trait seen across these industries and communities is their dependence on well-managed marine resources. These fisheries rely heavily on good science and proper guidance from resource managers.

Sen. Murkowski has supported Alaska's fisheries and coastal communities with both legislation and from her position on the Senate Appropriations Committee. She is on the Commerce, Justice, and Science Appropriations Subcommittee, which is in charge of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) budget, including NOAA fisheries. She has obtained funding for fisheries and marine mammal research and management, as well as Yukon and Pacific Salmon Treaty implementation. Sen. Murkowski is also on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee which oversees the United States Coast Guard. The U. S. Coast Guard has the critical role in the monitoring and enforcement of fisheries as well as providing the primary safety mission with search and rescue operations in Alaskan waters. Sen. Murkowski actively supports the Coast Guard's budget to insure that the service maintains the necessary presence.

Sen. Murkowski is engaged in many other issues that affect fisheries including Endangered Species Act listings such as the Western Population of Stellar Sea Lions and the recent Critical Habitat listing for the Cook Inlet Beluga whale. She has provided comments to the National Ocean Policy Task Force on marine spatial planning and is actively tracking the development of a national off-shore aquaculture policy. Sen. Murkowski continues to work on other fisheries issues that can help our fishermen expand markets for wild Alaska seafood, including canned salmon in the Women, Infant and Children (WIC) program, international food aid and school lunch programs. Recently, the FDA received a request to approve genetically engineered salmon. Senator Murkowski is strongly opposed to FDA approval of this product and will actively work to ensure it does not occur. She is also working with the EPA to continue an exemption to processing permit requirements for salmon trollers who happen to head, gut and freeze on board.

She is involved in discussions on increasing seafood safety and promoting the health benefits of Alaska's abundant sustainable wild fisheries.

HALIBUT

The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) recently completed its Eighty-seventh Annual Meeting in Victoria, B.C. The Commission recommended to the governments of Canada and the United States catch limits for 2011 totaling 41,070,000 pounds, an 18.9% decrease from the 2010 catch limit of 50,670,000 pounds.

The biomass in Southeast Alaska (area 2C) is presently very low. The IPHC recommended that area 2C commercial quota be reduced from 4.4 million pounds to 2.33 million pounds for 2011 ( 43% decrease). In order to keep the area 2C guided catch below the 788,000 pound Guideline Harvest Level (GHL), that was approved by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC), the IPHC determined that a one-fish daily bag limit, with an additional restriction that the retained fish must be no larger than 37 inches, was necessary to keep the charter harvest below its limit.

The low biomass is having a devastating impact on both the commercial and guided sport sectors in Southeast. The commercial catch limit in area 2C is 73 percent lower in 2011 than it was in 2003. I recognize how this decrease in the commercial quota is having such a dramatic impact on the commercial fishing industry. It is especially difficult for those fishermen who have purchased IFQ's and are now struggling to make their payments.

I also understand the economic impacts that the 37 inch maximum size decision will likely have on the guided halibut industry in Southeast Alaska. Unfortunately, the impacts will also affect the charter sector disproportionally, as the remote lodges will likely feel more of an economic impact since clients primarily fly up to sport fish, as opposed to clients who do half-day trips while on a cruise ship or air stop. Regardless, the impacts of the low biomass, GHL, and subsequent bag limit reduction will be quite severe on the guided industry.

I am working to encourage the NPFMC, Alaska Department of Fish and IPHC to analyze a paper prepared by ADF&G staff that shows a larger maximum size fish might be possible and still keep the charter harvest below the GHL. I have written letters to the three agencies asking them to do this analysis and provide the results to the IPHC commissioners. If the results of the analysis show that a larger maximum size fish could still keep the harvest below the GHL, I will request the IPHC commissioners reconsider their decision. I believe this is the best opportunity to allow for some mitigation to the impacts the low biomass and GHL will have on the charter halibut industry in area 2C.

There was also another action taken by the Secretary of Commerce as recommended by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) to implement a limited access program for charter vessels in IPHC Areas 2C and 3A. The intent of the program was to curtail growth of fishing capacity in the charter sector by limiting the number of charter vessels that may participate in the guided sport fishery in these areas. NMFS published a final rule implementing the program on January 5, 2010. Under the program, NMFS is issuing charter halibut permits (CHP) to licensed charter fishing business owners based on his or her past participation in the charter halibut fishery.

In order to qualify for a license, charter vessels must have operated at least five trips during the qualifying years of 2004 or 2005, plus 5 trips in 2008. New ventures entering the charter halibut business in 2006, 2007 or 2008 would have to buy a permit from a qualifying party that chooses to sell. The Council also set aside a limited number of charter limited access permits for small coastal communities to allow them to develop charter businesses. According to the NPFMC's analysis of 2005, Alaska Department of Fish and Game log books for area 3A, 520 businesses made one or more trips, with 471 making five or more trips and 388 making 15 or more trips. Charters that made more than five trips but less than 15 trips would receive non-transferable permits. Even though there is a reduction in the overall number of licenses and businesses, operators were not full every trip and there is still enough capacity to catch the same amount of fish or more. When you add in the new licenses that will go to the small coastal community entities who are trying to establish new businesses in remote Alaska, there is more than adequate numbers of operators and capacity within the charter sector to handle demand.

One of the most controversial aspects of the program is the interpretation from NMFS that a licensed guide would need a Charter Halibut Permit (CHP) while onboard a charter vessel with anglers onboard catching and retaining halibut. In this program, all anglers that use the services of a charter vessel guide, whether they are paying or non-paying, are considered charter vessel anglers. Each angler does not have to individually compensate the person providing sport fishing assistance for this definition to be applicable. Compensation is also not strictly limited to a monetary exchange and can include a trade of goods or services in exchange for taking someone fishing. In addition, any person receiving compensation (whether or not they hold an annual sport guide license issued by ADF&G), would be considered a charter vessel guide and need a CHP for assisting a person who is catching and retaining halibut in Area 2C or 3A. In this case, the person sport fishing would be considered a charter vessel angler, and the trip would be considered a charter vessel fishing trip.

I know this interpretation means that a charter operator would not be able to take his friends or family out halibut fishing without a CHP and if he had a CHP, then they would all be subject to the daily bag limit for a charter client. I have asked NMFS to re-look at this issue and find a way that a charter operator would be able to take his boat out, on a sport fishing trip, without being required to have a CHP or be subject to the charter bag limits.

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