Final Action for AFA Vessel Replacement Gulf Sideboards on NPFMC Agenda

Final action on American Fisheries Act vessel replacement Gulf of Alaska sideboards is on the agenda for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s spring meeting in Anchorage April 1-9.

During its February meeting in Portland, Oregon, the council reviewed an analysis of allowing vessel replacement of AFA vessels, to clarify AFA vessel replacement provisions of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010 and to prevent AFA vessels that are replaced from increasing fishing effort beyond historical catch levels in the Gulf of Alaska.

The council’s concern is the ability for increased harvest capacity in the Gulf of Alaska, even with sideboards.

The Coast Guard Act allows AFA vessels to be replaced for purpose of efficiency and safety rather than a total and constructive loss. In the Bering Sea, the AFA vessels fish mostly for pollock, but in the Gulf of Alaska they also participate in Pacific cod, flatfish and rockfish fisheries.

The council modified option 2.4 of the proposed action to prohibit Gulf of Alaska exempt AFA vessels that are replaced or rebuilt from exceeding the maximum length overall specified on the Gulf of Alaska license limitation permit.

The council noted that the vessel length recorded on the federal fishing permit is not verified by the Board Guard, and using the maximum length overall on the license limitation permit is consistent with other options, said Jon McCracken, an economist on the council staff.

The council also selected alternative 2 as the preliminary preferred alternative.

The vessel removal provision, which would extinguish the sideboard exemption, is also included in the preliminary preferred alternative, McCracken noted in the council’s newsletter on the February meeting. The purpose of selecting a preliminary preferred option at this time is to indicate to the public the likely direction the council may select at final action and provide for more focused public comments.

The council noted in its problem statement for the February meeting that the groundfish sideboard protections were included in the American Fisheries Act to prevent participating AFA vessels from increasing fishing effort beyond historical catch in the Gulf of Alaska. Ambiguities exist pertaining to groundfish sideboards in the AFA vessel replacement provisions of the Coast Guard Act, the council noted. For vessels with multiple licenses, it is unclear whether the maximum length overall on the Bering Sea license limitation permit or the Gulf of Alaska license limitation permit applies to a replacement vessel when fishing in the Gulf of Alaska.

In advance of the April meeting, the NPFMC has produced a public review draft of its regulatory impact review/initial regulatory flexibility analysis for AFA vessel replacement. It’s online at http://www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc/PDFdocuments/catch_shares/AFA/AFAVesselReplacement413.pdf

Atka Pride Seafoods Plant Will Open Early in Aleutians

The Atka Pride Seafoods processing facility, a joint venture of APICDA Joint Ventures, Inc. and the Atka Fishermen’s Association, will open April 27, closely paralleling the anticipated seasonal closure date of Icicle Seafood’s Adak facility.

APICDA Joint Ventures, a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of the Aleutian Pribilof Island Community Development Association, made the announcement March 6.

Icicle Seafoods did not respond to repeated requests for information about whether its Adak plant would operate this summer, but industry sources said that the company’s plant manager told the Adak City Council earlier that the plant would not operate this summer because generating power is too expensive during the slower fishing months.

Atka Pride Seafoods is a joint venture between APICDA Joint Ventures Inc., and the Atka Fishermen’s Association, a non-profit local fishermen’s association.

John Sevier, APICDA’s chief operating officer, said the community development association is pleased to have the Atka plant open early this year.

“This will allow us to get an earlier than usual jump on the season, particularly for sablefish,” Sevier said. “And it will provide continued local markets for fishermen currently delivering to Adak so they don’t have to make the long run to Dutch Harbor.”

Larry Cotter, chief executive officer of APICDA, said he did not know what the impact of Icicle’s Adak plant closure would be on the Atka Pride Seafoods facility.

The Atka Pride Seafoods’ facilities are at Atka, some 100 miles east of Adak and 360 miles west of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor. The Atka plant employs about 20 to 25 people, mostly local.

Sevier is urging fishermen who wish to deliver to Atka Pride Seafoods to call him or Ken Smith at 907-771-4200. It will be important for fishermen interested in delivering to Atka to work with the company to ensure their needs are addressed in advance, Sevier said.

Atka Pride Seafoods was formed in 1994. Initially a small plant focused on processing the local halibut CDQ quota held by Atka residents, the plant has expanded over the past few decades and now buys and processes halibut and sablefish CDQ and individual fishing quota and Pacific cod.

Two years ago a $4 million plant expansion was completed, and last year a new $1.5 million dock to deep water was constructed. Plans are being developed now to construct a new bunkhouse and substantially expand the processing and storage capacity of the plant in 2014. When the expansion project is complete, the plant will operate on a year round basis.

Bill Would Double Cost of Seven-Day Alaska Crewmember Licenses

Legislation introduced by Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, would double the cost of seven-day crewmember fishing licenses from $30 to $60 in Alaska.

Seaton said March 9 that there has been an explosive growth in the number of non-resident fishermen purchasing more than one seven-day license for a fishing season at $30 apiece rather than pay the $200 annual fee, and legislators were looking at how to make the system work better.

Alaska residents may purchase an annual crewmember license for $60.

Seaton said legislators considered restricting the number of seven-day licenses an individual could purchase for a single year, but it was too complicated to track because of the number of places where licenses can be purchased. In late February, Seaton introduced the action as House Bill 143.

Thirty-nine percent of each license sold, up to a total of $50, goes into the state’s Fishermen’s Fund, which is like a worker’s compensation fund for fishermen. Given the increasing number of non-residents purchasing two, three or more seven-day licenses for a single season, Seaton said that fund is losing thousands of dollars annually.

Back in 2003, legislation was passed to allow crewmembers the option of purchasing a seven-day license rather than one for the entire season, to accommodate those only planning to participate in the commercial fishery for a short time. For residents, that was a savings of $30 from the $60 fee for the year.

Nonresidents purchase the bulk of seven-day commercial fishing licenses.

“It’s nothing critical, but it is an accelerating problem,” said Seaton. If the measure passes, Seaton said, he did not expect the fee change to be in effect for this year.

North Pacific Harvesters Earned $1.9 billion in 2011

Commercial fishermen in the North Pacific earned more than $1.9 billion from their commercial harvest of 5.3 billion pounds in 2011, with salmon valued at $565 million dominating landings revenue, a new federal fisheries report says.

The total also includes pollock valued at $363 million; crab worth $249 million, and Pacific cod valued at $210 million, according to Fisheries Economics of the United States 2011.

Alaska’s seafood industry alone generated $4.7 billion in sales impacts, $2 billion in income impacts, and more than 63,000 jobs in 2011.

Seafood processing and dealer operations contributed 26 percent to in-state sales for Alaskan businesses, with more than $1.2 billion generated in 2011. The commercial harvester sector generated more impacts than any other sector with approximately 70 percent of total impacts. The importer sector consisted of less than one percent of the total impacts for the state for that year.

Landings revenue for finfish and shellfish totaled more than $1.9 billion, a 126 percent increase from total revenue generated in 2002. When adjusting for inflation, real landings revenue increased 57 percent. Landings revenue in 2011 was a 21 percent increase relative to 2010 revenue of $1.6 billion.

Finfish and other catch contributed more than shellfish to the 2011 total, accounting for 86 percent or $1.6 billion. This was a 136 percent increase from 2002 finfish revenue totals. Similarly, shellfish revenues increased 79 percent from $146 million in 2002 to $263 million in 2011. The largest change in landings revenue between 2002 and 2011 were for Atka mackerel, an 831 percent increase; salmon, a 335 percent increase, and flatfish, a 178 percent increase.

The report, published annually on a two-year lag to allow for data collection, analysis and peer review, is the work of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

It provides economic statistics on US commercial and recreational fisheries and marine-related businesses for each coastal state and the nation.

Key to the report are the economic effects – jobs, sales, income and value added to the gross national product- of the commercial and recreational fishing industries. Economic impact measures how sales in each sector ripple through the state and national economy as each dollar spent generates additional sales by other firms and consumers.

Collectively commercial and recreational saltwater fishing generated more than $199 billion in sales and supported 1.7 million in the nation’s economy in 2011.

The report is online at http://www.st.nmfs.noaa.gov/economics/publications/feus/fisheries_economics_2011

Bristol Bay Fishermen Urge Release of Watershed Assessment by March 19

Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay asked the White House today for a swift release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s updated draft watershed assessment of Bristol Bay. The group, which is supported by more than 100 commercial fishing organizations and businesses in Alaska and nationwide, said releasing the updated draft by March 19 will ensure that commercial fishermen from Bristol Bay and around the country have ample opportunity to comment and participate in the process before fishing season begins in late spring.

The final watershed assessment stands to play a critical role in whether a large copper, gold and molybdenum mine is constructed at the headwaters of Bristol Bay.

Fishermen, biologists and environmental organizations and other businesses nationwide are opposing construction of the mine because of its potential for extremely adverse effects on the world renown wild Alaska sockeye salmon fishery in the bay, which is the cornerstone of the economy of Southwest Alaska.

Mine proponents, who have spent millions of dollars on exploration and studies in the area, contend that they can develop and operate the mine in a manner that is safe for the fishery.

In a letter addressed to President Obama, Commercial Fishermen for Bristol Bay said that the original Bristol Bay watershed assessment public comment period garnered over 225,000 responses in a 60-day period, with over 95 percent of the comments in support of the watershed assessment and EPA action to protect the fishery.

“To guarantee that Bristol Bay fishermen, as well as interested citizens from across the country, have the opportunity to make their voices heard once again on the issue, we urge the EPA to conclude its peer review and release the updated draft watershed assessment by March 19th,” the letter said. “This will ensure that fishermen will be able to comment on the EPA’s work, and will keep the final assessment on track for an early-summer release.”

Bob Waldrop, executive director of the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, said the group feels the EPA’s decision to conduct a second peer review and public comment is redundant and unnecessary, and it is now incumbent upon the White House and the EPA to ensure that the people most directly impacted by the proposed Pebble Mine are given ample opportunity to comment on its updated draft watershed assessment.