By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

A $100 million buyout plan aimed at eliminating some substantial harvesters from the Bering Sea crab fisheries has failed, but federal fisheries officials said Aug. 2 they are willing to try it again.

"We are going to reinvite bids," said Mike Grable, chief of the financial services division of the National Marine Fisheries Service. "Then we are going to hold a second referendum on the results of the reinvited bids."

Tentative plans are to mail the new bid invitations on Aug. 6, and close bidding Sept. 24, Grable said. The second referendum ballots tentatively would go out Oct. 1, and voting would close Nov. 15, he said. Payments to winning bidders would be transmitted Dec. 22, he said.

Grable's decision came on the heels of an announcement from NMFS that so many votes were cast against the buyout by July 29 that it would be impossible to achieve the two-thirds majority vote needed for passage.

The initial plan, which had strong support from the fleet, would have retired a number of vessels with large harvest history in the snow and king crab fisheries, giving greater harvest potential to vessels remaining in the fishery. The $100 million paid out to retire those vessels would be repaid by the remaining fleet over a 30-year period.

The first round was marred by a computer error that multiplied the fishing histories of boats with more than one owner, said Sheela McLean, public information officer for NMFS at Juneau. McLean said the computer errors might have caused mistakes in the ranking of vessels owners who bid for a buyout. The errors also magnified the potential amount of crab history that would be bought out, and with that, benefits to those staying in the fishery, she said.

Grable's decision won quick industry approval.

"There is overwhelming support for redoing the ballot processing and the referendum," said Arni Thomson, executive director of the Alaska Crab Coalition. "A lot of people think there is still a chance for this to work; a good chance. We are glad NMFS is moving rapidly to redo this and wrap it up by the end of the year."

Thomson said that the controversy over the buyback has created a lot of awareness that vessel owners can get a good market price for their vessels.

"There is an established market for vessels and quota share, and the word has gotten out what the normal market price is," he said. "The buyback has helped in terms of educating vessel owners on the real market price. The point is that a lot of people in the industry anticipate there will be more bids, and they are hopeful there will be more competition in the buyback program. They are hopeful there will be more catch histories bought out in this next process."

"I think a lot of people are happy to do it over again," said Tom Casey, a consultant to Bering Sea crab fishermen.

The first go-around raised high expectations that harvesters with a history of taking 20 percent of the king crab and 20 percent of the opilio crab would be out of the fishery, he said.

"The first time around, it was a fabulous deal. When they refigured it, it didn't look as good," he said. "I think people want to get back to that original deal. One of our leading CPAs down here said he thinks people will sharpen their pencils before they put in a new bid, and he thinks we'll buy out more this time around."