Alaska has many old boats, and forthcoming safety rules will target those vessels.
According to a state Department of Commerce report, roughly 9,400 boats more than 28 feet make up Alaska's maritime fleet. Of those, 69 percent are in the fishing and processing sector; another 15 percent are recreational boats. Freight carriers, sightseeing and oil and gas vessels make up the rest.
More than 90 percent of the Alaska fleet is less than 100 feet long, and 74 percent are under 50 feet. Most of the boats were built between 1970 and 1989 with nearly 1,000 more than 50 years old.
The Alternate Safety Compliance Program is aimed at vessels that will be at least 25 years old by 2020, greater than 50 feet in length, and operating more than 3 nautical miles offshore, said Troy Rentz, program compliance coordinator for the U.S. Coast Guard's 13th District
Coming up even faster: Fishing vessel dock exams become mandatory on Oct. 15 for boats that fish more than three miles offshore. "If you have an exam decal, it is still valid. If you don't, make an appointment with the Coast Guard now and avoid the rush," Rentz said.
By Feb. 16, 2016, vessel survival craft must keep all parts of the body out of the water, meaning floats and other buoyant apparatus will no longer be legal.
Removing tons of debris
Kodiak volunteers scrambled with front-end loaders and dump trucks to ready 100 tons of super sacks for the first pick up of a massive marine debris removal project that begins in Alaska next week.
The month-long cleanup, backed by an array of state and federal agencies, non-profits and private businesses, will deploy a 300-foot barge and helicopters to remove thousands of tons of marine debris from some of the world's harshest and most remote coastlines.
"This is a really big deal for Alaska. We have one of the world's newest and largest barges and an airlift operation that will fly over 2,000 helicopter trips from barge to shore. It is an unprecedented effort," said Candice Bressler, Public Information Officer for the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), lead agency for the project.
Most of the debris stems from the devastating 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan that sent an estimated 1.5 million tons of flotsam and jetsam afloat in the North Pacific. Japan has donated $5 million to the coast-wide cleanup up effort.
The barge Dioskouroi, one of the largest in the world, will be towed out of Kodiak next week by the M/V Billie H.
The big tug will traverse the Gulf of Alaska and proceed along the Southeast coast to British Columbia, picking up debris sacks cached and bundled on remote beaches during past field seasons.
DEC began flying Alaska's coastline in 2012 to map the debris by its density and movement. The agency captured more than 15,000 geo-references to help focus cleanup efforts.
"Definitely our biggest players in this were Gulf of Alaska Keeper (which is coordinating the airlift project) and Island Trails Network of Kodiak. They were instrumental in caching all this debris throughout the Gulf of Alaska."
The final destination is Seattle, where the goods will be sent for sorting and recycling, with remaining debris sent by train to a final disposal site in Oregon.
"This wouldn't have been possible without the unprecedented generosity from the government of Japan. They have been so generous and so open to helping out with this issue, and we are so incredibly thankful," Bressler said.
A Kodiak kickoff event is set for Thursday July 16 with DEC Commissioner Larry Hartig. Follow the voyage online: http://dec.alaska.gov/eh/marine-debris/.
Nets to nouveau fashion?
Some of the tons of lines and nets in the debris could be turned into high end shoes and clothing. The international group Parley for the Oceans is coordinating the marine debris recycling effort in Seattle, and reportedly is planning on using the plastic materials in jeans.
Parley made headlines last week when it launched a line of shoes in partnership with Adidas that are made from recycled gillnets from pirate fishing vessels.
"We are extremely proud that Adidas is joining us in this mission and is putting its creative force behind this partnership to show that it is possible to turn ocean plastic into something cool," said Parley founder Cyrill Gutsh in a press release.
Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based commercial fishing columnist. Contact her at msfish(at)alaskan.com.