A roundup of Alaska fisheries news

Terry Haines

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has committed to buying nearly $120 million worth of frozen and canned sockeye salmon and frozen pollock filets for use in federal food assistance programs. It has been described as the largest single seafood purchase in the agency's history.

The program is under "Section 32," which takes 30 percent of customs receipts and uses the money to buy surplus U.S. agricultural products in an attempt to prop up the markets for them. In recent decades seafood has been among the products bought with Section 32 money, but there is fierce competition from producers of things like nuts and vegetables.

It's no coincidence that the decision came after a letter signed by our Congressional delegation strongly supported it. Strong runs in Bristol Bay have left lots of fish in cold storage from last year, worrying fishermen that their price this year might plummet. The news of this purchase is a welcome one, but few are holding out hope that the price will be as high as last year's.

The state of Alaska has officially petitioned the U.S. District Court of Western Washington for a "partial stay" of its ruling on May 2 that would shut down king salmon trolling in Southeast Alaska. The court ruled that the "Incidental Take Statement," which estimates the effect of the fishery on southern resident killer whales in Puget Sound, was flawed.

Because the whales in question are endangered the Endangered Species Act was triggered, shutting the fishery down until the science can be fixed. The ESA bulldozes over all other federal projects and programs, which includes fishery management plans.

The state and the Alaska Trollers Association are basically asking for mercy in their request for a stay. Whether the next court will grant it is unknown, but it could be telling that the National Marine Fisheries Service, which is the actual defendant in the case, has made no effort so far at an appeal, nor has it joined in the call for a stay. NMFS has said only that it is "working expeditiously" to resolve the inadequacies in the science, and pointed out that the other two species available to trollers, the considerably less glamorous chum and coho, are not affected by the lawsuit.

American Seafoods executive Chris Oliver is taking a seat on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

He will be taking over a seat long held by Dave Hanson. Oliver is already a familiar face. He worked at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council for 30 years, 16 of them as executive director. In 2017 he was appointed assistant administrator for NOAA Fisheries, where he oversaw the entire nation's commercial and recreational marine fisheries. Most recently, and perhaps not surprisingly, he is now the regulatory special advisor to American Seafoods, the earth's largest producer of Alaska pollock.

But officially he will be representing the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, which is an interstate compact agency. You may now be asking yourself the who, which is a what?

The PSMFC was most recently in the news as the administrator for funds disbursed for fishery disasters. But its authority is wide ranging and very real. PSMFC was created by Congressional consent in 1947 as an interstate compact agency. Interstate compact agencies make legal agreements between states, and even with foreign governments. They can't create regulations that contradict federal law. But otherwise they are pretty free to wheel and deal amongst themselves.

In this case five Pacific states (California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and, oddly Idaho) are empowered to make legally binding agreements between themselves to "sustainably manage our valuable Pacific Ocean resources," with an emphasis on full utilization and the "prevention of waste." PSMFC Executive Director Barry Thom announced in early May that Oliver "will be joining the commission on June 1 and will be assuming the seat on the council on my behalf." Oliver's seat is non-voting but enduring. Hanson has served there on the executive director's behalf since 1988.

Oliver is a ringer. He brings unsurpassed knowledge and ability to the table. His influence will be considerable, despite his non-voting status. And he continues a trend of executives from the pollock industry ascending to the council. The governor's most recent choice for a voting seat, Rudy Tsukada, is the chief operating officer at Coastal Villages.

They are among the Community Development Quota program entities with large holdings of pollock quota. Their motto is "Pollock Provides." Gov. Dunleavy was under pressure from Native groups to provide native representation with his pick.

In Tsukada's nomination letter the governor's office said it made an effort to seek out women, people of color and people from historically underrepresented communities for the seat.

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