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The North Pacific Fishery Management Council met in Anchorage Oct. 5-11, and is in the process of refining options on how the so-called Gulf of Alaska groundfish rationalization program will work. The council made no final decisions at the meeting.
Several crab boat owners and crew members were critical of any groundfish plan that gave quota shares to processors, like the crab rationalization plan that went into effect this year. Jeff Stephen, speaking on behalf of the United Fishermen's Marketing Association of Kodiak, said the majority of gulf groundfish harvesters using pot gear would like to see the fishery rationalized, but that they opposed allocations for processors. Such allocations would be anti-competitive, and promote consolidation in the processing sector, he said.
Several fishermen told the management council that if the program was put into effect at all, they wanted all skippers and crews included for allocations of fishing privileges.
Ludger Dochtermann, a fisherman and owner of two vessels that participate in halibut, sablefish, Bristol Bay crab and gulf groundfish fisheries, pointed to the economic situation already created by the federal crab rationalization program as an example of dire economic effects he said would follow with gulf groundfish fisheries privatization. In 2004, some 251 boats fished for Bristol Bay red king crab, proving 1,400 direct jobs, he said. As of Oct. 7, only 118 boats were registered, and less than 100 will actually fish, and meanwhile 800 skipper and crew members have lost their jobs, he said.
"The reasons why you must stop these insane rationalization schemes are obvious," he said. "In Kodiak, where displaced experienced skippers and crew members are looking for nonexistent crab jobs, our community is turning into a ghost town."
The crab rationalization program was heralded as a plan to increase the safety of fishermen in the treacherous waters of the Bering Sea, because it would eliminate the race for fish by assigning quotas that could be harvested as each vessel skipper saw fit. In conjunction with crab rationalization, a buy-back program was initiated, to trim the number of participating vessels in what was characterized as an over-capitalized fishery.
Dochtermann said in a later interview that in reality, that's not how the system really works.
"I have fished for Peter Pan Seafoods for 19 years, but now the processors are calling the shots," he said. "Before the ink was dry on this new program in April, they told me when to deliver my king crab and opilio (crab), because of market considerations."
Dochtermann said he was told to deliver his harvest of king crab to Peter Pan Seafoods by Oct. 22. The season opened Oct. 15.
"Nothing has changed," he said. "We are still fishing at the same time and the race for fish is still on."
Steve Branson, testifying on behalf of a group of several hundred fishermen who crew on fishing vessels, said the process left the fishermen out.
"... Skippers and crews are not meaningfully included in the privatization of our public resources, and ... our free markets will be replaced with forced processor linkage or processor harvest quota allocations," he told the council.
Branson said the fishermen, whether skippers or crew, should be included in the allocation of groundfish, and be transferable only among active qualifying crew and skippers, he said.
Branson also urged the council to put any unclaimed harvest allocation into a pool to be leased by active skippers and crew. Proceeds from leasing would be used as a loan base for entry-level skippers and crew, and re-education of fishermen displaced by consolidation and cooperatives, he said.
Terry Haines of Fish Heads, an advocacy group for fishermen and their families and residents of coastal communities, also urged inclusion of skippers and crews.
"All fishermen on every catcher boat must be listed on every fish ticket," he told the council. "In this way, independent contractors with a history of participation could be factored in as fisheries are further rationalized."
The council also heard testimony from Lysa Maher, who spoke on behalf of her partner, David Dennis, a 20-year veteran of the crab, long-line and other Alaskan fisheries. Maher read a statement from Dennis arguing that the council, by approving crab rationalization, had taken away his job, his right to earn a living and with that, the food that feeds his family.
"We fishermen are being outgunning by special interests, layers, consultants and lobbyists," the statement read. "You have sold us out while we are out trying to earn a living. You have given away our rights and livelihood to a very, very few."
Gulf groundfish rationalization, like crab rationalization, has been a contentious issue for several years. On one side are arguments that assigning quotas to fishermen based on their harvest history would make the fishery safer and more economically feasible. On the other side are arguments that the major processors are trying to control all fisheries.
Former management council member Linda Behnken, currently the director of the Alaska Longline Fishermens Association in Juneau, addressed the processor quota share issue in August during comments regarding reauthorization of the Magnuson Stevens Fisheries Conservation Act.
Behnken said in a letter to the staff of Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, on the Senate Commerce Committee that the longline association had two overriding concerns regarding the act's reauthorization: Maintaining healthy fish stocks and maintaining healthy fishing communities.
"We consider the two to be inextricably linked," Behnken said. "We believe the act must be strengthened to protect and promote opportunities for independent, community-based fishermen or many coastal communities in Alaska and around the nation will disappear, taking with them a vibrant culture and a steadfast constituency for resource health."
Behnken said the longline association remained firmly opposed to establishing limited access privileges for processors.
"There is no defensible rationale for processor shares," she said. "Processors are not synonymous with communities; in fact, the processor shares created by the Bering Sea/Aleutian Island crab plan do nothing to protect communities. Instead they created a processor cartel that will economically strangle independent fishermen and the coastal communities they support."
Margaret Bauman can be reached at margie.bauman@alaska
journal.com.
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