According to an article in the Kodiak Daily Mirror, the council agreed to omit Gulf of Alaska rationalization from its agenda for the next two meetings and defer any action on the controversial plan until December. Council members also will spend a day listening to public testimony prior to their meeting in Kodiak in June.
The request to slow things down was the product of a joint city and borough task force, appointed in January to represent both governments in formulating a community position on Gulf rationalization, the Mirror reported. The task force is composed of a cross-section of stakeholders in a fishery slated to be privatized by the controversial plan.
The Mirror reported that during the group’s first two meetings, a perceived lack of accessibility to the fishery council process and a sense of urgency to act quickly were recurring themes. Assembly member Cecil Ranney hopes the success of the Kodiak testimony will alleviate some of those concerns, saying, “This gives the task force more time to try to come up with a consensus.”
The next step will be for the task force to decide how to use the time granted by the reprieve. Task force member Theresa Peterson, who also represents the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, said an ad-hoc committee of the task force is meeting to outline past and present fishery management programs such as individual fishing quotas and the co-op structure for pollock in the Bering Sea. The task force will use this outline at their next meeting to broaden their discussion of possible management and community protection programs.
“A lot of management measures are back on the table,” task force member Julie Bonney told the Mirror. Bonney also represents the Alaska Groundfish Databank. She cited trip limits, retention requirements and an inshore versus offshore allocation split, to name a few possibilities the task force will explore.
The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee moved forward on offshore aquaculture with a public hearing earlier this month on Senate bill 1195 in Washington, D.C.
The plan calls for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) to develop a permit system to allow fish farming in the 3.4 million square mile Exclusive Economic Zone, or EEZ, which extends from three to 200 miles off the U.S. coast.
The panel that testified in front of the committee included Sen. Ted Stevens, chairman of the Commerce Committee; Bill Hogarth, director of the National Marine Fisheries Service; Randy Cates, president of Cates International, operator of the first open-ocean fish farm in the nation; and Mark Vinsel, executive director of United Fishermen of Alaska.
Stevens’ testimony centered around an amendment that would allow coastal states to opt out of having fish farms in federal waters off their shores.
“Clearly, it should be the right of a state that has wild fish to protect its fish without an economic analysis …” Stevens told the committee. “Alaska has half the coastline of the United States. Our state harvests 60 percent of all commercial fish harvested in the United States. I myself doubt seriously that we would ever be able to protect wild fish if we had aquaculture off of our shores.”
Mark Vinsel of UFA testified before the subcommittee and echoed Stevens’ concerns. On behalf of the 31 fishing organizations that UFA represents, Vinsel urged the subcommittee to carefully consider the proposed legislation. He stated, “These operations must be consistent with ecosystem management based on sound science and a precautionary approach. Please be very cautious in your drafting of regulations and heed the old saying …‘First, do no harm.’”
In his written statement, Vinsel also made specific recommendations for the proposed national offshore aquaculture program. He suggested that the program include:
* The study of market impacts to protect existing wild seafood production;
* The incorporation of local scientific input into the permitting process and decisions about the location of fish farms;
* Management authority for regional fishery management councils over fish farm operations;
* Equal access to the Departments of Commerce and Agriculture research, marketing, and support programs for wild fish and farmed fish operations; and
* Provisions that allow coastal states to modify their aquaculture practices or completely opt out of the program.
NOAA Fisheries Director Bill Hogarth told the panel the plan would create thousands of jobs as well as ease pressure on wild fish populations and on the nation’s $8 billion annual seafood deficit.
“The U.S. must explore the potential of offshore aquaculture,” Hogarth said. “We need to create this opportunity now.”
The administration envisions “a one-stop permitting system by NOAA,” said Hogarth, who added that the plan provides the regulatory certainty that business interests need and binds permit holders to “strict environmental standards.”
Concerns raised as a result of offshore aquaculture include pollution, diseases transmitted from farmed to wild fish, and nonnative species escaping and competing with wild fish.
Also of concern is the make-up of the feed given to farmed fish. Carnivorous species such as halibut and salmon, the fish most likely to be farmed, require two to four pounds of wild fish to be caught for feed for every one pound of fish ultimately harvested, depleting the supply of feed left in the ocean for wild fish to eat.
Alaska currently has a ban on fin fish farms and the state’s fishing interests are not eager to see that change.
“Current technology does not adequately protect existing ocean resources from harm from fish farms seeking to grow fish to market size in open or coastal waters,” Vinsel told the committee.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist. She can be reached at cristy-fry@excite.com.
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