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The final environmental impact statement issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service in late August is one of the last steps needed to institute the program. The plan is aimed at reducing the race for crab and number of competing vessels, stabilizing the industry and improving safety for fishermen.
The so-called crab rationalization program was established in January 2004, when Congress amended the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The legislation allocates crab resources to participants in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island king and tanner crab fisheries.
James Balsiger, Alaska region administrator for the National Marine Fisheries Service, said his agency, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would like to see crab fishermen operating under the new program in the fall of 2005.
The controversial plan includes processor quotas, along with restrictions on where and to whom the crab can be sold within specific regions. Opponents of the plan have argued that it essentially gives the North Pacific Crab Association, which has ties to Seattle's major processors, control over pricing.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, sponsored the rider to the 2004 Omnibus Appropriations Act that puts the crab rationalization plan into effect. His son, Ben Stevens, a Republican state senator from Anchorage, is a lobbyist for the North Pacific Crab Association.
Meanwhile, efforts for a crab vessel buyback program to reduce the competition in the fisheries are under way for a second time at NOAA. A number of vessel owners have submitted bids for the buyout, which would be repaid by the rest of the fleet over a period of years.
Voting for some 300 vessel owners will begin Oct. 1 and conclude Nov. 15, with NOAA to announce the results on Nov. 22, officials for the federal agency said.
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