JUNEAU — Gov. Bill Walker's nominee to the state Board of Fisheries says he can be impartial despite his past work on behalf of commercial fishermen, even as several lawmakers here said he'll face a difficult confirmation battle.
Walker appointed Roland Maw, the former director of a Cook Inlet commercial fishing group, to the fish board in late January after the resignation of the board's chair, Karl Johnstone. Johnstone quit when Walker told him he wouldn't be reappointed at the expiration of his term in June.
Maw's appointment sent ripples through fish circles in Juneau and elsewhere, as Maw, a Walker campaign booster, is widely viewed as a strong or even radical advocate for commercial fishing interests. With Johnstone, the board, which divides fisheries among competing users, was evenly split between commercial and sportfishing advocates.
Maw, in a phone interview this week, said that he left his job with the commercial fishing group, the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, "months ago." And he said he could serve without bias.
"This labeling, this branding of board members -- I just reject that on its face. I don't think that's fair to anybody," he said. "I've worked with members on the board for a long time. I've seen the so-called commercial guys vote against commercial fishermen."
Nonetheless, sportfishing advocates say they're concerned that if Maw is confirmed, he'll change the balance between members sympathetic to commercial interests and members sympathetic to sport fisheries, such as dip netting and charter trips.
Sportfishing advocates have strong political support from members of the Mat-Su delegation, who led efforts in 2013 to reject another board candidate viewed as too sympathetic to commercial fishermen.
Sen. Bill Stoltze, R-Chugiak, who represents Palmer and other areas of the Mat-Su, said in an interview that his constituents were "baffled" and "confused" by Walker's appointment.
"'Are they serious?' I mean, that was the reaction. To take what's traditionally a sportfish seat and put somebody that has actually had a declaration of war on sport- and personal-fish users," said Stoltze, who will chair a committee hearing on Maw's appointment later in the projected 90-day session. "I'm concerned about the balance. And I don't think it's any stretch of an exaggeration that he is a member with an incredible animosity toward the Mat-Su Valley and our users."
Maw is a polarizing figure in Alaska's fishing community, with strong support from some commercial interests -- and especially from his former group, UCIDA, which represents more than 550 commercial salmon fishing permit holders in Cook Inlet.
Maw served as UCIDA's executive director for 13 years -- a period in which his opponents came to view him as single-mindedly promoting his group's interests at the expense of personal use fishermen and charter boat operators.
In 2011, for example, UCIDA proposed a reduction in salmon from 25 to 10 in the household cap dipnetters could pull from Cook Inlet annually. Another proposal from UCIDA would have barred dipnetting from boats on the Kenai River. Both would significantly reduce the personal-use fishery on the river.
And in 2013, the group joined with a seafood processing association to sue two federal agencies in what state officials have described as an attempt to put Cook Inlet salmon management back under federal oversight and control. The two groups argued that state management hadn't properly incorporated science and transparent procedures required under federal law.
Maw's critics have cited the lawsuit in their arguments against his appointment, saying it doesn't make sense to confirm a state fish board member who wants to give more power to the federal government.
Maw declined to comment on the lawsuit. But his successor as UCIDA's director, David Martin, said in an interview that "it's not any way, shape or form that UCIDA wants federal management."
Instead, UCIDA wants Cook Inlet to be managed under the federal Magnuson-Stevens Act. The late U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, whose name was on the law along with the late Sen. Warren Magnuson of Washington state, was a "champion" of Alaska interests, Martin said.
"We named an airport after him but we're not going to manage the fisheries under his legislation?" Martin said in a phone interview. As for Maw, he added: "Anyone who would vote against his confirmation would be supporting to continue the political management of our fisheries."
Maw has a doctorate in forestry and wildlife management from the University of Alberta. He said he first came to Alaska in 1970 to work in a cannery, then worked a string of fishing jobs, including one where he bought a tender -- a delivery vessel -- in Florida and sailed it back to Alaska through the Panama Canal.
While he described himself as UCIDA's "present" director in a recent resume, and wrote a reporter recently from a UCIDA email account, he said he served as staff, not as a board member, and earned less than $20,000 a year working on a "part-time basis."
He said he was using the UCIDA email until he could get set up with a state account, or a private one, and that the resume he submitted with the UCIDA listing was "a couple years old."
Maw submitted the resume in December when he was trying to get appointed commissioner of Fish and Game. Walker instead appointed Sam Cotten.
The fish board, which vets commissioner applicants along with the state game board, voted unanimously against advancing Maw's candidacy without discussion -- a maneuver that drew criticism from Walker and House speaker Rep. Mike Chenault, R-Nikiski, who both suggested the fish board had circumvented the public process.
After the resignation of the Johnstone, Walker picked Maw, who donated more than $1,000 to Walker's gubernatorial campaign, for the vacant spot.
The appointment sets up a battle between sport and commercial fishing interests in the Legislature.
Ricky Gease, executive director for the Kenai River Sportfishing Association, characterized Maw's appointment as a "misstep" that "unbalances" the fish board.
"He's a lightning rod for more groups than ours, across the state," Gease said in a phone interview. "And I'll just leave it at that."
Walker said at a news conference late last month that he had "no strategy" to upset the board's balance between commercial and sport interests. And a spokeswoman, Grace Jang, said in an emailed statement Friday that the governor "firmly supports" Maw's nomination.
"We are confident that he will present himself well and will be confirmed by the Legislature," Jang added.
Stoltze, the Mat-Su legislator who chairs the Senate State Affairs Committee, said Maw would get a "fair process" when his nomination comes up. But Stoltze said Maw would probably need support from Walker and Chenault, the House speaker who spoke up for Maw when his application was rejected by the fish board.
"It's up to Gov. Walker and Mr. Chenault to carry their guy," Stoltze said.
But Chenault, in an interview Friday, said he expected it to be a "tough confirmation," and added that he won't have much clout with his colleagues.
"There's not a whole bunch I can do, even as the speaker, to get someone through the appointment process," Chenault said. "I don't have a lot of political capital to be able to burn on that. I'm one vote."
Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, said flatly that he didn't expect Maw to get confirmed.
"When you have someone who has really had positions that are anti-dipnetter, anti-sportfish, for my constituents' sake there's just no way I can support him," said Wielechowski, who added that he's relayed his concerns to Walker.
Wielechowski said he was worried that Maw, who will serve on an acting basis at the fish board's next meeting in late February, could work with a the board's new commercial fishing majority to enact policy that would "gut dipnetting this summer."