I have lived around the ocean all of my life. Growing up in Washington State, I saw first hand the devastation caused by poor fisheries management and polluted marine habitat. I moved to Alaska to teach and work as a commercial fisherman in Bristol Bay. When I moved to Homer in 1994 and started sport fishing, I became increasingly worried about bycatch and what it meant for Alaska's future.

While trying to educate myself on bycatch I learned about the Alaska Marine Conservation Council. AMCC was founded in 1994. It's a community-based organization dedicated to protecting the long-term health of our oceans and sustaining our working waterfronts.

As I became more educated with AMCC's programs, I was increasingly impressed with the work they were doing and decided to become a board member. Since then I am continually amazed at the level of commitment this organization exhibits.

AMCC is working on reducing bycatch, particularly in the Gulf of Alaska. Bottom trawling involves dragging large nets weighted with chains or airplane tires across the seafloor, harming everything in its path. In the North Pacific, hundreds of millions of pounds of marine life are thrown away as bycatch each year. Presently, we are focusing our attention on tanner crab and king salmon bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska.

AMCC is concerned about ocean acidification. I recently became educated as to what this is. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it is caused by carbon dioxide pollution. In the past 200 years, the oceans have absorbed nearly half of the carbon dioxide put in the atmosphere and this is actually changing seawater chemistry. As a result, the world's oceans have become more acidic.

Pteropods (ter-ro-pod) are small marine snails at the base of the food chain. A more acidic ocean threatens their ability to form their shells and survive. In addition, other marine creatures that build shells like corals, clams and crab will be affected by rising acidity. AMCC is working with communities to support initiatives to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Alan Parks, AMCC's outreach coordinator in Homer, was instrumental in the city of Homer adopting a Climate Action Plan that has committed it to reducing carbon emissions. The city of Homer and the Kenai Peninsula Borough, along with seven other Alaska communities, have adopted a Global Climate Compact that speaks directly to legislators concerning carbon emissions and ocean acidification.

Through our Friends of Bristol Bay program, AMCC is working to restore protection for Bristol Bay from offshore oil and gas drilling. A lease sale is scheduled for the year 2011 in the heart of Bristol Bay. The region supports a $2 billion annual renewable fisheries economy. In addition to important fisheries, the Bristol Bay region also supports diverse and abundant marine mammal and seabird populations as well as a number of threatened and endangered species.

AMCC is working with others throughout the nation to oppose the expansion of finfish farming (such as halibut, black cod and salmon) into U.S. federal waters. Fish farming is a threat to marine environments and the market value of Alaska's wild seafood.

As ocean temperatures warm and fish move northward, industrial trawl fleets want to move into new areas in the northern Bering Sea. AMCC has been informing communities in Western Alaska about this anticipated change and was instrumental in getting fishery managers to agree to limit bottom trawling in the northern Bering Sea to those areas where trawling has historically occurred. All other areas are closed to trawling until a protection plan is developed.

AMCC is having the "Save the Ocean Boogie" fundraiser at Alice's Champagne Palace on Friday, Oct. 23, from 6-10 p.m. We will be serving seafood chowder. The band "Blue Sky" will be playing some great dance music. We'll have a silent auction, dessert auction/sale and a dunk tank. Our own Alan Parks along with Cook Inletkeeper's Bob Shavelson have volunteered to get wet. A $10 admission fee gets you chowder and bread, live music, AMCC membership, door prizes and the chance at some fantastic auction items. Purchase tickets in advance at the Homer Bookstore, Captain's Coffee or Latitude 59 and be eligible to win a door prize.

We would love it if you came out for a fun-filled evening at Alice's and supported this great organization. For more information about the fundraiser, call Alan Parks at 235-3826. If you would like to learn more about AMCC, please check out our Web site at www.akmarine.org.

Chris Donich is a Homer resident and a board member of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.