The group reviewed letters of support for fisheries related policies, as well as met with several lawmakers to discuss the industry.
Q: What is United Fishermen of Alaska and what were they doing in Kodiak?
A: UFA is the statewide commercial fishing trade association. There’s a lot of regional associations like for seiners, gillnetters, or trawlers, but this group is meant to represent the entire industry in Alaska and works with policymakers like the Alaska Department of Fish and Game or the congressional delegation.
Usually they have two annual meetings – one in Anchorage and another in either Juneau or a fishing community. The board president said very few people can remember the last time UFA met in Kodiak, but guessed it might have been in 2004. And with Kodiak’s pretty large and prominent fishing fleet, the board decided it was time to have a meeting on the island again.
Q: You mentioned they work with policymakers – who all did they work with in that meeting?
A: There were some pretty prominent people at the meeting. Of course, Kodiak’s state house representative, Louise Stutes, gave a talk. She’s long claimed to be a champion of fisheries to the Legislature.
She wasn’t the only state official though – Doug Vincent-Lang, the commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, met with the association via zoom.
Both Senator Dan Sullivan and Rep. Nick Begich III separately called in, too. They both gave updates, answered questions from the association, and took some feedback. Sen. Lisa Murkowski didn’t join the meeting herself, but one of her staffers spoke, so all three members of our congressional delegation were part of the meeting in one way or another.
Q: Let’s start with Louise Stutes, since she’s our representative from here in Kodiak. What did she share about policy at the state level?
A: Louise Stutes was the only politician who attended the meeting and presented in person. Fisheries is one of the largest industries in Alaska, and the state has a lot of policies in the works.
One of the recent moves was a bill approved by the Legislature and signed by the Gov. Mike Dunleavy in the last Legislative session. It reduces regulation for insurance pooling for commercial fishermen. The idea is to allow fishermen to split costs and reduce overhead. Here’s UFA’s executive director, Tracy Welch, explaining why that’s good news for the group.
"Insurance is becoming very expensive for folks, and it’s a difficult space to navigate just because there’s fewer people offering insurance," Welch said.
She added that overall, while much of the industry is recovering from price crashes in 2022, costs have also significantly gone up for fishermen. That bill was one of the results of the Seafood Taskforce that presented results earlier this year.
Another result from that taskforce’s findings Stutes is working on is on a bill concerning tax credits for fisheries processing.
Stutes also says she’s working on focusing electronic monitoring requirements to specific fisheries, instead of requiring every state vessel to have it. She claimed it could put some small fishing operations out of business by requiring them to buy equipment and pay to interpret all of the information from a monitoring system.
Q: What about the others like Vincent Lang, and the congressional delegation? What policies did they focus on?
A: One of the policies that kept coming up was changes to the Marine Mammal Protection Act proposed by Begich back in July. Many of the changes would roll back protections for animals, like reducing population goals from maximum productivity to mere survival for species.
In a hearing by a [the] U.S. House Subcommittee [WEB: on Water, Wildlife, and Fisheries], he called it a “discussion draft,” saying he hopes to hear from all stakeholders.
Conservation groups like the Alaska Whale Foundation said the changes proposed could cause “considerable harm to a species,” but the United Fishermen of Alaska approved a letter supporting changes.
Vincent-Lang with Fish and Game said a middle ground from the current proposal was needed.
"He went a little bit too far in some of it in our eyes, but we do support MMPA revision," Vincent Lang told the group.
He also added that marine mammals should be managed to prevent ecosystem issues.
Begich told the group he hopes to work with Democrat peers across the aisle on getting a more final version.
"It’s positioned as a discussion draft intentionally because we want to make sure that we are able to receive feedback in it in an honest and genuine and open way," Begich said at the meeting.
A staffer for Begich said the proposed changes do not have a bill number yet, nor has had any movement since its initial hearing in July.
Other policies Begich and Sullivan especially talked about were reauthorizing the Young Fishermen’s Development Act to support more people getting into the industry and bolstering the Coast Guard’s funding and resources.
