Campbell has large shoes to fill on the board, according to local fisherman and North Pacific Fisheries Association member Glen Carroll. “We lost a real good person when Dersham left,” Carroll said. Dersham was an important component in the effort to sort out Gulf of Alaska groundfish rationalization at the state level in connection with the federal program, Carroll noted. “He carried the ball,” he said. Carroll was taking a wait-and-see attitude toward the new board member. “I just hope he can be as objective in the commercial fishing realm as Dersham was.”
There will be a meeting today at 10 a.m. at the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center to gather stakeholder input for reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act. The meeting is being held by the state of Alaska. Stakeholder input is being sought for the management mechanisms such as the North Pacific Fishery Management Council structure and process, a requirement for strong credible science and a separation between resource assessment and allocation, federal fishery management plans, observer coverage, bycatch reduction, rights-based management and more.
The fishing industry is Alaska’s largest private sector employer and contributes more than half of the nation’s seafood harvests. Given the importance of this industry to the state, consideration and evaluation of sustainable fisheries management is a state priority. While the NPFMC is widely acknowledged as a model worldwide for proactive, sustainable management, improvements that further the interests of Alaskans are welcome. Anyone can testify at the meeting, there will be a sign-up sheet available.
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game also is currently accepting written comments on Magnuson-Stevens Act reauthorization. Submit comments to: Sue Aspelund, Special Assistant to the Commissioner, ADF&G, P.O. Box 25526, Juneau, AK 99802-5526 or via e-mail at: sue_aspelund@fishgame.state.ak.us.
There also will be a meeting in Anchorage on Oct. 4 at the Hilton Hotel from 7 to 9 p.m., and in Girdwood on Oct. 14 at the Alyeska Prince Hotel from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
These hearings come on the heels of new legislation for MSA reauthorization submitted by the Bush administration that it says will help prevent over-fishing as part of a plan for managing the nation’s fisheries. According to an Associated Press article, the bill calls for tougher fines and penalties, more peer-reviewed science studies and market-based decisions and other measures that will “help us toward ending over-fishing and rebuilding our fish stocks,” according to Jim Connaughton, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. The legislation is designed to guide local and regional fishery councils such as the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Alaska.
The article also states that critics are saying the bill does not follow recommendations made by the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy and will turn back the clock on advances made in ocean conservation. Advocacy groups such as Natural Resources Defense Council quickly denounced the bill, saying it revokes the requirement to rebuild an over-fished species within 10 years and allows over-fishing on some species to continue for years before legal protections kick in. The council said the bill also would undermine public participation by closing off meetings and comment periods to citizens and require only that the amount of bycatch be reported “to the extent practicable.”
Steve Murawski, chief science adviser to the Commerce Department’s National Marine Fisheries Service, said the administration didn’t back the U.S. Commission on Ocean Policy’s recommendation that a group of scientists suggest the total number of allowable catches each year because “it would have Balkanized the process.”
Murawski said the administration recognizes that good fishery management is based on peer-reviewed science and that the government should help fishermen make better business decisions through the use of fishing quotas. “In many cases they do not make market decisions that are in their own best interests and the long-term interests of the country because of this race to compete with each other,” he said.
Christy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also has 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.
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