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March 7, 2009
Salmon bycatch causing problems for Native communitiesBy Shawn DochtermannExcessive chinook and chum salmon bycatch by the pollock fleet will devastate Bering Sea coastal communities dependent on every last salmon for food and necessary income to maintain power and heat. 
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council failed to put a hard cap on fleets or stop fishing entirely when they've caught a certain number of salmon. The Magnuson-Stevens Act defends conservation, sustainability and habitat. National Standard No. 9 of the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 states, "Conservation and management measures shall, to the extent practicable minimize bycatch, and to the extent bycatch cannot be avoided, minimize its mortality." Shall! When will major seafood industry players abide by the law and minimize bycatch instead of devising political schemes to get around it? At the NPFMC meeting last June, Dutch Harbor municipal leaders implied their loss of economic stability from closing down the pollock season was more important than Native rights to subsistence fish and keeping their families warm and fed. I was repulsed by their comments. Not only should the pollock fleet face shutdown for lawbreaking, huge fines should be in place for each chinook caught. Penalties could then be distributed to communities in need. The 2005 Rockfish Pilot Program awarded excessive bycatch allowances to 52 vessel owners in the Gulf of Alaska, despite National Standard No. 9. What stinks about Sen. Ted Stevens repeatedly giving a few companies the exclusive rights to Alaska's fish products is that it restrains trade. Who can afford to sue the government for Ted's antitrust impropriety? The Kodiak Daily Mirror might ask the Alaska Groundfish Databank how much they spent lobbying Uncle Ted and Rep. Don Young to push the RPP into law! Rewarding more bycatch, this time for salmon, which major processors are lobbying the NPFMC for, places corporate entities against Native villages. One has millions of dollars to gain while the other has an existence and lifestyle to lose. Please write to our congressional representatives, the NPFMC, fisheries periodicals and newspapers. Which is more important: for-profit corporations or indigenous peoples' lives and families? Shawn C. Dochtermann is a public advocate for Alaskan Coastal communities, as well as the leading representative for the Bering Sea Crab Crewmen's Association [incorporation pending] that is seeking fair and equitable compensation and access for BSAI crab crewmen. © AlaskaReport.com All Rights Reserved. |
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 |