The public is being asked to weigh in on a proposed catch-sharing plan that would allow transfers of halibut quotas between commercial and charter operators in Southeast Alaska and the Central Gulf of Alaska. The plan, developed under the direction of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, would allocate each year's halibut catch limits between the two sectors.
"The council saw it as a way to provide some compensated way of transferring between the two," said Rachel Baker, a fisheries specialist with NOAA Fisheries in Juneau. "We don't know how many people will use it or what the lease prices will be. That all remains to be seen. But it will be authorized by the plan if it is approved."
Currently, the commercial and charter halibut fisheries operate under different management programs. The commercial fishery has used Individual Fishing Quotas since 1995. Since 2003, the charter sector has used harvest guidelines that give operators a number of fish they can catch per guided angler per day. The harvest guidelines do not set an overall catch limit.
Annual stock assessments indicate that the number of catchable halibut has declined coastwide by about 50 percent over the past decade, according to the International Pacific Halibut Commission. Commercial catches have been on a downward spiral in recent years, especially in Southeast Alaska, where the 2011 harvest is a mere 2.3 million pounds, down by 47 percent from last year. For the Central Gulf, a harvest of 14 million pounds is a drop of 28 percent.
At the same time, the Southeast Alaska charter sector has exceeded the guideline harvest level every year since 2003 and by nearly 60 percent last year. The charter catch in the Central Gulf topped the harvest guideline by an average of about 3 percent from 2004 to 2007; from 2008 through 2010, the harvest has ranged from about 7.5 percent to 24 percent below the guideline.
Baker said under the new plan the commercial IFQ program itself will not change, other than authorizing temporary transfers of catch shares from commercial to sport -- dubbed Guided Angler Fish (GAF) -- for a fishing season.
"When an IFQ permit holder and a charter halibut permit holder agree to transfer IFQ to GAF, they'd apply to NOAA Fisheries Restricted Access Management for the transfer," Baker said. "Once the transfer is approved and the GAF permit is issued to the charter halibut permit holder, the GAF permit would be valid until 15 days prior to the end of the commercial fishing season for that year. The rule proposes restrictions on the amount of IFQ that a holder can transfer as GAF, and on the number of GAF that could be assigned to one GAF permit."
"The overall goal of the plan is sustainable management of the halibut resource for the economic benefit of both sectors," said NOAA's Julie Speegle in Juneau. "I really hope people will find a way to make it work."
The public can comment on the catch-sharing plan through Sept. 6. If approved by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the program will begin in 2012. Get more information at http://alaskafisheries.noaa.gov/sustainablefisheries/halibut/sport.htm.
LEADING EMPLOYERS
Seven Alaska seafood companies made the list of Alaska's Top 100 employers for last year. For 25 years, the state Department of Labor has tallied the largest private-sector employers, which last year represented nearly a third of all jobs and 38 percent of all Alaska paychecks, for a total of $4.3 billion. Collectively, the Top 100 increased their work forces by 1.5 percent, faster than the overall private sector.
The July copy of Alaska Economic Trends shows that for the seafood industry, Trident ranked No. 6 with average monthly employment reaching a high of 2,499 workers. Trident's largest work site is at Akutan. Icicle Seafoods, headquartered in Petersburg, ranked No. 26 with monthly employment from 750 to 999. Unisea at Dutch Harbor was No. 29 with the same number of workers. Peter Pan Seafoods came in at No. 43, employing 500 to 749 each month. Its largest facility is at King Cove.
Kodiak is home to three of the top seafood companies, all of which provide 250 to 499 jobs a month: Ocean Beauty at No. 50, North Pacific Seafoods at No. 66, and International Seafoods, which made the list for the first time ranked at No. 100.
The report said seafood processing companies are the biggest job providers in coastal Alaska communities.
USE FOR POLLOCK BONES
Hundreds of 1-ton sacks of pollock bone meal are on their way from Dutch Harbor processing plants to California neighborhoods to remove toxic lead.
The Environmental Protection Agency claims there is more lead contamination in America's cities than federal or state agencies can ever afford to clean up and that nearly every urban residential area has a lead problem.
The toxic metal is in the soil, deposited by car exhaust from the decades when gas contained lead, or from lead-based paint residue. For more than two decades, lead removal has involved digging up and disposing of hundreds of thousands of tons of contaminated soil.
The New York Times reports regulators are now trying a new strategy: neutralizing the toxic metal with fish bones.
Fish bones are full of calcium phosphate. As they degrade, the phosphates leach into the soil. Lead binds with the phosphate and transforms into a harmless mineral called pyromorphite.
This alchemy has been practiced in university and commercial labs for more than 15 years, and more recently at acid-mine sites and military bases. This month the process is being tested in the first residential neighborhood: South Prescott in Oakland, Calif., where some lead contamination levels are six times the federal limit of 400 parts per million.
Pollock bones work especially well, the article said, because all meat remnants are removed during processing. The two-year, $4 million project is expected to put 75 people to work.
Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based fisheries journalist. Her Fish Radio programs can be heard on stations around the state. Her column appears on Sundays in the Daily News. This material is protected by copyright. For information on reprinting or placing on your website or newsletter, contact msfish@alaska.com.
LAINE WELCH
FISHERIES