Branson said that he thinks the processors, not the fishermen, are the ones who pushed for crab rationalization and are doing the same with Gulf of Alaska groundfish. He’s also concerned about the foreign make-up of the market. “With processor quota implemented, they own the market,” Branson said. “Forty-nine percent of the red (king) crab harvest this year will be delivered by law only to Japanese-owned corporations. They’re supposed to offer a close ‘fair market value’ for the crab. Since there’s no longer a free market, they have to establish a fair market.”
“The reauthorization of the MSA looks like the re-foreign-ization of our fisheries,” he continued. “Thirty years ago when we Americanized the fisheries with Magnuson-Stevens, we forced the foreign fishermen out of our waters, out to 200 miles. Now, they won’t need to be in our waters, they’ll be waiting on our docks, and they’ll have us fishing for whatever price they want to give us.”
Most of the crab boats are expected to eventually form cooperative fishing agreements where IFQ pounds belonging to four or more boats are caught by one of the boats. Deckhands working on co-op boats can expect a severe pay cut, according to Branson. “The price breakdown that I’ve gotten so far from one of the first co-ops is offering co-op members 70 percent off the top after taxes,” he said. “So they’ll take off the fish tax, the RAM tax, and the buyback tax. Then they take the IFQ-holder’s 70 percent off the top. There’s 30 percent left. They call that 30 percent 100 percent. Then you get your normal crew share (3 to 6 percent) from that 30 percent. So all of a sudden you’ve got your crab crew fishing for less than 30 cents on the dollar.”
Branson is concerned about the impact on Kodiak and other coastal communities as a result of crab and groundfish rationalization with the loss of crew jobs. “Kodiak takes a lot of money from the crewmen,” he said. “We come back to town, we go out to dinner, pay our fuel oil and town payments. There’s at least 150 guys or so here in town that have lost their jobs, and there are a handful who are going to have jobs, but at a greatly reduced percentage.”
Jane DiCosimo, senior plan coordinator for the NPFMC, said that’s the unfortunate nature of rationalization, but the council is required to look at the big picture. “The council is required to examine the biological, social and economic impacts of any action that it takes,” said DiCosimo. “Obviously, with any type of rationalization program, there are economic and social costs. But that is the purpose, the point of rationalization. Rationalization implies reduction. It is an unintended consequence that crewmen are displaced. The council understands that, it sympathizes with it, but the overall benefits of the program to the nation, which is its charge, is the basis of their decision.”
Branson and his organization, the loosely formed, 400-member Crewman’s Association, have specific requests for the NPFMC and the rationalization programs. They want to see processor linkages taken out of the groundfish proposals, they want deckhands and their crew license numbers put on the fish tickets for documentation purposes, and they want a tax levied on the crab and groundfish deliveries that would fund either a low-interest loan program or a one-time buyout for displaced crewmembers.
DiCosimo said that documentation of crew is holding up their inclusion in rationalization programs. “Crewmen don’t sign fish tickets,” she said.
Branson says all crewmembers are required by law to sign a crew contract that states seasons fished and percentages. According to DiCosimo, that would be useful information for the council. “None of that information has been presented to the council. If that information was available, I’m very surprised that it was not put forward to the council for crab. I encourage them to put that information into the council records.”
Most of all, Branson says deckhands need to organize and get representation at the NPFMC meetings. “We need a lobbyist,” he said. “Every other big player has somebody going to every meeting. Sending a fisherman to a fisheries meeting is like sending a chicken to a dogfight. We don’t know the lingo. We need a representative, and we need to all organize, and be on the same page. I can definitely sign everybody up, but we need some more volunteers to organize. We need to get serious about it.”
Branson directs interested fishermen to a Web site maintained by one of his partners in protest, Terry Haines. Found at www.4alaskafishers.com, the site contains information about the proposals they’ve submitted to the council and editorials. Anyone wishing to join the Crewman’s Association or volunteer can contact Branson via e-mail at bransons@ptialaska.net.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978 and has also designed and built gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and sablefish and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist.
