Joint Legislative Salmon Industry Task Force

Production Subcommittee

Representative Bill Williams, Chair

Meeting Minutes

Thursday, October 16, 2003

Face-to-Face Meeting, State Capitol House Finance Room, Juneau

 

 

In Attendance:  Representative Bill Williams (BW), Don Giles (DG), Chris Moss (CM), Frank Homan (FH) & Kurt Schelle (KS) (CFEC), George Utermohle (GU) (Legislative Legal), Geron Bruce (GB) (Fish & Game), Cheryl Sutton (CS) (Task Force Staff), Tim Barry (TB) (Staff to Representative Williams).  Also in attendance: Joe Childers (Western Gulf of Alaska Fishermen), Sue Aspelund (ADF&G), Tom Gemmell, Kathy Hansen (SEAFA), Bob Tkacz.  By telephone:  Art Nelson (Board of Fisheries), Mark Vinsel (UFA), and Dale Kelley (Alaska Trollers).

 

BW called the meeting to order at 10:10 am and asked GU to discuss his thoughts on Agenda Item A.

 

A.  Allowing fishermen who hold multiple permits to fish in more than one area per year.

 

 

GU shared the information in his written memo.  It is GU’s view that the legislature has several options:

-                            If the legislature is comfortable with the status quo, it can do nothing, or it can amend state law to make it clear that the Board of Fish and the CFEC have the power to prohibit permit holders from participating in more than one salmon net gear fishery a year.

-                            Or, the legislature can eliminate the ban on multiple permit holders participating in multiple fisheries in a single year.  GU suggested several approaches to achieving this goal.

-                            The legislature could do nothing, and let courts possibly address the issue in the future.

 

There was some discussion among subcommittee members expressing the belief that it would not result in much fleet consolidation if people were required to use only one boat, but were allowed to use multiple permits.

 

B.  Discussion on removing the 58’ seine vessel restriction from statute.

 

GU presented a draft bill that would allow the Board of Fisheries to permit longer vessels by administrative area by the Board of Fisheries.  CM expressed his concern that the Board of Fish not change the length limit every few years.  Fish Board member Art Nelson said it’s unlikely that the Board would do that.  BW asked if the bill could require that 2/3rds of permit holders agree to a change.  GU said that the bill could be written that way.  DG indicated he thought this would be a good bill to bring to the entire task force.

 

C.  Discussion on proposed bill to reduce permits without establishing a buy-back program.

 

GU explained the draft bill.

FH said he thinks it is a creative approach to reducing the number of permits without the state having to create a fund to buy back permits.  FH explained his suggested changes to the draft bill:  Define “joint entry permits”; change wording from “permits outstanding” or “entry permits” to “transferable entry permits”; include language allowing the CFEC to set the number of permit shares in a mathematically logical fashion; and clarify whether the 60-day notice should apply to permit shares.  KS explained that, in cases when the optimum number is a range, the Commission would pick the mid-point of the range.  CM asked how the CFEC would determine the value of the permit shares it sells.  FH said they would probably allow the market to determine the value.  FH also explained that optimum number determinations are complicated and time-consuming, so they would probably not be done too often.  GU asked what to do about permits that are under adjudication.  FH said there are very few of these.

There was some discussion about whether it is necessary or appropriate to require 2/3rds of permit holders to approve a plan.

 

D.  Discussion on proposed bill regarding a buy-back surcharge.

 

GU explained the draft bill.  FH presented an example of how much the surcharge would be, depending on the number of permit holders and the value of each permit. 

 

E.  Discussion on proposal regarding incremental privileges for people who hold multiple permits.

 

GU explained the draft legislation.  It would allow the Board of Fish to grant extra privileges to fishermen who hold more than one permit.  DG and Art Nelson commented that the Board should have wide discretion in deciding which incremental privileges to give to multiple permit holders.  Geron Bruce of Fish & Game said it would make sense for people to bring proposals to the Board of Fish, and then have permit holders vote.  Art Nelson of the Board suggested having a minimum threshold level of support for a proposal from, for example, 25% of permit holders before the Board would institute a change. 

 

BW asked GU and CS to work on re-drafting the legislation discussed to reflect the comments of subcommittee members and CFEC.

 

The next scheduled meeting will be at 10:30 am on Friday, October 31st, by teleconference.

 

BW adjourned the meeting at 1:45 pm.

 

Minutes taken by Tim Barry