Five years after a Pacific cod fishery disaster in the Gulf of Alaska, 2020, federal financial relief is finally being distributed to some of the affected municipalities, like Kodiak. The Kodiak City Council formally accepted $156,158.40 on Thursday, Dec. 4.
Acting City Manager Josie Bahnke told the council that the funds should be used to supplement lost revenue for local port projects.
"We are recommending that council dedicate the Pcod funds of $156,000 to the St. Paul harbor launch ramp project," Bahnke said.
The council decided unanimously to do what Bahnke suggested. City officials estimated last year that the St. Paul harbor boat launch ramp replacement will cost up to $1.5 million, but that amount is still a moving target.
The city lost out on landing tax revenue during the 2020 Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod fishery when no one was fishing that season. Now the recouped funds can go towards ports and harbor infrastructure which benefits the local fishing industry. The City of Kodiak also received $36,824.27 from the 2021 Chignik Salmon fishery disaster which the council approved to be used to repair and maintain the city’s piers & docks.
According to the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is distributing the federal funds, $709,000 out of the total $17.8 million is going to various Alaska municipalities and boroughs. The commission says 10 communities across the Gulf of Alaska were eligible, based on the amount of Pacific cod landings in the years leading up to 2020. The commission said via email that they are not at liberty to disclose which of those 10 communities applied for funding and how much they will receive, as that information is not publicly available.
But the list of communities where eligible landings occurred includes the City of Kodiak and Kodiak Island Borough, the City of Whittier, the City of Seward, the City of Homer, the Kenai Peninsula Borough, the City of Cordova, the City of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor, the City and Borough of Juneau, the City of Sand Point, the City of Akutan, the City of King Cove and the Aleutians East Borough.
The city of Kodiak is also receiving money from the state of Alaska’s 3% fishery business tax on shore-based landings, which is split equally between the state and the municipalities where the landings occur.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries is allocating a total of $17.8 million for the 2020 Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod fishery disaster relief. It’s paying about half to fishermen, or 54% which equals $9.59 million, with the rest going to processors, research and communities.
A new federal law called the FISHES Act took effect earlier this year that requires NOAA to process and distribute fishery disaster funding within 90 days of receiving properly completed relief requests, also referred to as a spend plan.
*And for transparency, the mayor of the city of Kodiak, Terry Haines, is also a newscast host for KMXT. In accordance with KMXT’s policy on editorial independence, all decisions concerning local news content, including which stories are aired during KMXT’s newscasts, remain solely under the authority of the KMXT News Director.
