“The board is going to go ahead and meet in November,” Cote said, “because if the court rules in the state’s favor, then the board will have to already have decided how the co-op will operate in the coming year. The regulations have to be on the books, and fishermen have to apply by mid-March to join the co-op. For the regulations to be in effect, we have to have the board go ahead and take action this fall.”
Right now, the co-op doesn’t exist until the board takes action next month and the courts give their blessing, according to Assistant Attorney General Lance Nelson.
“There is no regulation on the books right now. The emergency regulation they adopted expired Sept. 2. A court case involving the emergency regulation is still going on, however,” Nelson said.
The proposal before the board attempts to solve one of the legal issues, the perceived intent of the Commercial Fisheries Limited Entry Act that permit holders actively participate in the fishery, by requiring each cardholder who joins the cooperative to make 10 landings on their permit, and does not allow multiple landings on one delivery. The co-op operated under this system in 2005.
“The court held that the co-op was not meeting the spirit of Alaska’s limited entry laws,” Cote said. “So what the board did when it met last spring to respond to the court’s ruling was to change some things so that it met the spirit of the limited entry law. The vision of the limited entry act is one permit, one fisherman, not five permits, one fisherman.”
The other issue is whether or not the Board of Fisheries has the authority to allocate a percentage of the catch to a certain user group in the same fishery.
“The plaintiffs in the litigation have argued that it’s illegal for the board to allocate between two groups in the Chignik fishery because they claim it’s all one fishery, because everybody uses seines,” Nelson said. “Our argument is that it is two fisheries now, that you can choose the one you’re going to be in. It’s two fisheries because they use different kinds of gear in the cooperative fishery, with the use of fixed leads, net pens and longer seines,” he explained.
According to Nelson, one thing that hasn’t been challenged in court at this point is the way the fishery is allocated, with a larger percentage of the catch going to the cooperative if more people join. As it is written, if less than 80 percent of registered Chignik permit holders join the co-op, then the co-op receives nine-tenths of 1 percent of the catch. For example, if 50 of the 100 permit holders join the co-op, then the co-op receives 45 percent of the catch. The allocation goes up to 0.95 percent for 80 to 85 permit holders, and if more than 85 permit holders sign up for the co-op, then the allocation is “one pro-rated share of the harvestable surplus for each participant in the cooperative,” as stated in the proposal before the Board of Fisheries.
The court has been asked to fast-track the case, according to Nelson. “Briefing has started already, and will be done by Nov. 22, and we’ve requested the court give us a decision by the end of February, 2006,” he said.
The full proposal is available online through the Boards Support Web site at www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us. Parties wishing to comment by the Tuesday deadline can send their comments to Board of Fisheries Comments, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, P.O. Box 25526, Juneau, AK 99802, or fax them to (907) 465-6094. The Board of Fisheries meeting will take place in Anchorage on Nov. 15 and 16 at the Marriott Downtown, at 820 W. Seventh Ave.
Christy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978 and 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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