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February 23, 2008 RPP's questionable benefits to KodiakA few weeks ago the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank (AGDB), based in Kodiak, put out a press release on the Rockfish Pilot Program. It makes some statements that are true and others that are definitely false. This program was successful in slowing the fishery down, but at the expense of excluding most future participants the chance to fish for 95% of the rockfish in the Gulf of Alaska. 
Interestingly enough, it is portrayed as a 5 year program that was developed by the NPFMC and authorized by Congress. It was never a 5 year program, it was initially a 2 year program enacted without due process in Congress. As pointed out by John McCain, Chair of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Olympia Snowe, Chair of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Fisheries and Coast Guard, in a letter (September 5, 2003) to Senator Ted Stevens, all fisheries legislation needs to proceed through these bodies of Congress to be judicially prudent. The RPP did not follow the correct process; it was just another swindle in the dark of the night rider attached to the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2004. A 3 year extension of the RPP never did go through the NPFMC, in fact, it was a secret En Bloc amendment pushed through with the help of Representative Don Young's office. Al Burch of Alaska Draggers Association (ADA) and Julie Bonney of ADGB went to House Resources Chair Richard Pombo to install this most onerous addition to a 2 year pilot program. Ted Stevens, in the last hours before the 2006 Christmas recess, pulled a bait and switch with bills to get the MSA reauthorized which contained this most unscrupulous amendment. They knew if they could fish a 5 years rationalization program, that it wouldn't be difficult to set precedence, and it would never be rolled back as being only a pilot program. The AGDB & ADA intentions were to cement a footing in the industry with the addition of 3 more years to the program. I traveled to DC last summer and spoke with different aides from Congressmen that served on the House Subcommittee on Fisheries. It was interesting to hear them state that they were trying to halt MSA reauthorization due to many contentious amendments that needed to be striped from the bill. The RPP was a set up for the trawlers to privatize the rockfish fishery and allow them to keep all of their past historical incidental bycatch. The majority of the sablefish and cod were caught (directly) on separate tows than their rockfish, which was illegal. Ted Stevens wordsmithed, changing the word "bycatch" to "secondary species", to allow what was previously an incidental catch to become a directed catch. The sablefish was fished directly, and not caught as an incidental bycatch. The fixed gear fleet was harmed when they were constrained to only catch 2 ½ percent of the Total Allowable Catch (TAC), plus they were restricted to only deliver to the three smaller processors. The 4 large plants now form a closed class of processors. The jig sector usually fishes for rockfish in the summer when most processors are taking deliveries of salmon, and the smaller processor have no space to process. Now there is an open season with no processor to take their fish. This is a clear restraint of trade even if it is for only a few vessels. All three of the smaller processors were harmed, as between them, they only have a chance to process 5% of the TAC. Global Seafoods of Kodiak lost nearly 2 ½ million pounds of rockfish to process, a million dollars in revenues, and upward of 100 processing worker jobs. So where are the significant benefits to the whole community of Kodiak? So now, who is trying to fool whom? Evidently through half-truths the AGDB has once again played its game acting like a data bank, but in reality it is a major lobbying firm for GOA trawlers and fishery processors. Shawn C. Dochtermann Shawn C. Dochtermann is the Vice-President of the Alaska Jig Association, the Secretary of the Crewman's Association, is on the Board of Directors of the (AIFMA) Alaska Independent Fisheries Marketing Association, and is a second generation fisherman, with 30 years fishing experience in the GOA, BS, BB, & AI for crab, cod, halibut, sablefish, rockfish & salmon. |
BERING SEA & ALEUTIAN ISLAND CRAB CREWMEN & SKIPPERS - Past & PresentThe Crewman's Association is requesting that all past and present Bering Sea/Aleutian crab crewmen contact us AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Just when you thought it would never happen! After thorough research, we've found that the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and NOAA General Counsel skirted US laws to give 97% of crab quota shares to boat owners/investors in Crab Rationalization. The Commerce Department knows it must cure its legal blunder. Just as basic justice and humaneness oblige the Council to restore our historical economic participation rights. Now is the time for the onboard fishermen - the true harvesters of the crab, past and present - to step up together. You play a vital role in providing information we need to make crew proposal(s) to the Council to overturn high quota rents, to restore incomes to all crewmen and to fishing communities. We need your name, contact information (full mailing address, email address, and phone numbers), vessel names, and seasons (by year and species), and total years fished. We'd also appreciate names, phone numbers and email addresses of your past crewmates, too, so we can contact them if they don't see this ad. In addition, copies of your old contracts or settlement sheets, from pre- and post-rationalization, will help in proving crewmen's legal rights. You can request your old contracts from vessels you previously fished for. By law, all vessels over 20 tons were required to have contracts; and we also need to know which vessels were in violation. Please help protect the future for crab fishermen, and future new entrants into all fisheries, by contacting us soon by email, phone, or by mail. If you'd like to join our organization please note that when you contact us.
Contact us as bscrabcrew@gmail.com |
