State officials are scurrying to deal with federal budget cuts that have slashed upward of $6 million from grants that fund several commercial fisheries research and stock assessment programs.
The money was cut from grants funneled through the National Marine Fisheries Service, John Hilsinger, director of the Alaska Commercial Fisheries Division, said Jan. 24.
“We've never really heard the rational specific to cutting each and every grant,” he said. “Right now what we are doing is going through all the grants and finding out the magnitude of the cuts. We are going through each grant and looking at actual activities funded, and making an assessment on whether the state should pay for them, or whether the grants are primarily for carrying out work for the federal government.”
One thing that remains to be seen is whether there is any discretionary money in the federal Commerce Department, he said.
Hilsinger said there may be projects where the state can tell federal fisheries officials that without federal funding, the work can't be done. On the other hand, some of these things the state should pay for, and hopefully the governor's office and the Alaska Legislature will see it that way, he said.
The slashed grants cover a mix of research and surveillance tasks that have helped maintain the sustainable fisheries, a requirement for Marine Stewardship Council approval of species.
Hilsinger said the grants cover some Bering Sea crab research, some American Fisheries Act requirements for management and near shore marine fisheries research on rockfish, scallops, geoducks and red sea urchins. Other slashed grants included one for slightly less than $1 million, for sonar at Pilot Station, subsistence surveys, aerial escapement surveys, some Sheenjek River sonar and some work on the joint U.S.-Canadian technical team for the Yukon River. That grant has been funded for about 20 years.
The near shore marine research program funded by the federal grants pays for stock assessment of shellfish and groundfish in near shore waters, plus geoduck and red sea urchin stock assessments in Southeast Alaska, and rockfish stock assessments at Kodiak.
Also covered by the slashed grants is the extended jurisdiction program for federal shellfish and groundfish fisheries managed in federal as well as state waters by state officials. Unless funds are found, scallop and Bering Sea crab research programs, including stock assessment surveys in areas not covered by federal trawl surveys, would not be done, he said.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.
