UFA Update

January 3, 2003

 

Joint Legislative Salmon Task Force.  Revised Recommendations.
 *The last two paragraphs of the report were inadvertently left off in the original version.

TV Alert (Jan 3 & 7).  The UA Marine Advisory program has taped a show on marine protected areas.  The panelists on the show are:  Rick Steiner (moderator, UA), Joe Uravitch (NOAA National MPA Center, DC), Doug Woodby (ADFG MPA Task Force), Bob Thorstenson (UFA Pres), Stephanie Madsen (Pacific Seafood Producers Assn and Resource Development Council), Whit Sheard (the Ocean Conservancy, Anchorage), and Paula Terrell (Alaska Marine Conservation Council).  The show will be aired: Jan 3, 7:00PM KAKM (Anchorage, MatSu, Kenai Pen) Jan 3, 9:00PM ARCS (Rural Alaska) Jan 7, 8:00PM  Alaska One (Juneau, Fairbanks, Bethel, rural).

 

Table of Contents

  1. Shutdown of fish plant will hit hard

  2. Cartoon:  Farmed Fish

  3. Round Gold has surplus fishes and caviar dreams

  4. State trade chief Greg Wolf goes to World Trade Center

  5. Fish Factor:  Grant allows Valdez to train fishermen to process, sell their catch

  6. Police can't find a body to go with slaying

  7. Men Can Reduce Stroke Risk by Eating Fish

  8. Radar monitoring Sound icebergs

  9. Feds: State owns submerged land

  10. NMFS:  Interim TACs 2003

  11. NMFS:  Final Regs AFA Amendments

  12. NMFS:  Final rule to implement Steller sea lion protection measures

  13. Opinion:  ADFG Commissioner

  14. Chinese economy could boost exports

  15. Fish Board's meeting now set for Jan. 31

  16.  Troubled waters: Salmon farming's foul fallout

  17. Scientists tracked unusual voyage of abandoned vessel

  18. BOF:  Kenai River And Kasilof River Early-Run King Salmon Conservation Plan (Written comment by Feb 7 03)

  19. Alaskan fishermen turn to 'designer' salmon

  20. Subsistence:  Customary Trade Documents January 2003 Meeting

  21. Subsistence:  2004 Call for Fishery Proposals (By 28 Mar 03)

  22. Subsistence:  Regional Advisory Council Applications/Nominations (Due by February 28, 2003)

  23. State fines Trident $1 million

  24. Mystery man's hoax costs thousands

  25. UFA-  The ONLY State-wide Political Organization for Alaskan Commercial Fishermen, by Bob Thorstenson, Jr.

  26. Smart Marketers Know What Women Want (Seafood Business, Nov 02)
     

1. Shutdown of fish plant will hit hard.


2. Cartoon:  Farmed Fish.
 
3. Round Gold has surplus fishes and caviar dreams.

4. State trade chief Greg Wolf goes to World Trade Center

5. Fish Factor:  Grant allows Valdez to train fishermen to process, sell their catch.
 
6. Police can't find a body to go with slaying.

7. Men Can Reduce Stroke Risk by Eating Fish.
 
8. Radar monitoring Sound icebergs
 
9. Feds: State owns submerged land.

10. NMFS:  Interim TACs 2003

GOA
BSA  

11. NMFS:  Final Regs AFA Amendments.

12. NMFS:  Final rule to implement Steller sea lion protection measures.  

13. Opinion:  ADFG Commissioner.

14. Chinese economy could boost exports.

15. Fish Board's meeting now set for Jan. 31.

16. Troubled waters: Salmon farming's foul fallout.

17. Scientists tracked unusual voyage of abandoned vessel.

18. BOF:  Kenai River And Kasilof River Early-Run King Salmon Conservation Plan.

19. Alaskan fishermen turn to 'designer' salmon.

20. Subsistence:  Customary Trade Documents 14 January 2003 Meeting.

Meeting Materials.  
Appendix.  

21. Subsistence:  2004 Call for Fishery Proposals.

22. Subsistence:  Regional Advisory Council Applications/Nominations.

23. State fines Trident $1 million. 
 
24. Mystery man's hoax costs thousands.

25. UFA-  The ONLY State-wide Political Organization for Alaskan Commercial Fishermen

Folks.  You don’t need me to tell you that the Alaskan fishing industry is a tale of two cities right now.  Generally speaking, if you’re operating with enough IFQs or you operate out west with whitefish, you’re probably in pretty good shape.  If you operate in salmon in any fashion whatsoever, you’re probably not.  Crab, shrimp, shellfish, herring, it just depends. 

So.  We have two categories of members at UFA.  For all our members we need to have the proper political and regulatory connections and be positioned to help deliver the benefit of these connections for the fishing industry.   Slightly under half our group members are non-salmon folks for whom we need to work on the regulatory, environmental, management scenarios and policies to ensure access to the resource. Slightly over half our group members are salmon-only or salmon-plus folks for whom we need to do the same as the non-salmon folks, but we need to pull some economic revival for them as well. 

Believe it or not, there is actual debate on this concept of economic revival for the salmon fisheries. There are quite a few folks in Alaska who are either diversified enough or are comfortable and willing to just “wait and see”.   They’re the smarter, highliner set and they’ve wisely set things up for the long haul. I’m not diversified and I’m not very comfortable, but I guess in another time and era I might just be with these folks. 

But I’m not.  Along with most of the UFA board, I believe we need to seriously work on economic packages to help our fishermen in Alaska.  We need a new deal.  We need serious marketing dollars for salmon.  We need to change some of the ways we used to do business.  Both fishermen and processors.    How much do we change?  This is dependent upon what
region we’re from and how much we want to change.  I seriously doubt that the largest employer in any region in the state isn’t going to have the say in how they change or don’t change their business environment.

I know one thing.  I’m not about to tell someone from Chignik how to run their business, just like I don’t want them to tell me how to run my business.  In some areas, like marketing, we’re going to be looking at statewide packages.  In others, like restructuring, it’s going to be up to the individual regions and gear types.

Now, let me tell you a bit about UFA.

United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA) was founded in 1974.  UFA is a trade association that has no mandate or charter to negotiate or discuss fish prices.  I believe the organization that has that authority is USA- the United Salmon Association - which is, by the way, a UFA member.  We are fortunate to have two USA members to work with, Scott McAllister and Bruce Schactler, who head up our marketing committee.  These gentlemen volunteer their time to strategize on how best to deal with securing marketing funds, demand tariffs on Chilean farmed salmon, and secure funding for better transportation and infrastructure for our industry, amongst other things.  For example, in August, 2002, Senator Stevens pledged $20 million to help Alaska with marketing efforts.  There was only one voice in Alaska asking for such funds.  Not the Knowles administration.  Not ASMI.  No, it was our two marketing co-chairs.

I’ll briefly list a few more of the dozens or hundreds of issues that we’ve dealt with over the past couple of years.  One of the other issues that our Marketing co-Chairs took up was the price reporting  issue with Alaska processors.  This was a very contentious issue between fishermen and processors and it culminated in some very current and accurate price reporting information.

In 2000, after the Feds took over managing federal waters in Alaska, we were confronted with many challenges with the subsistence issue so our Subsistence Chairman, David Bedford, went to DC and procured annual funding of $250,000 for an education program to get Alaskan fishermen up to speed on getting involved with this complicated issue.

In both 2000 and 2001, we took up lengthy and costly fights to oust Board of Fisheries members whom we considered to have interests adverse to Alaska’s commercial fishermen.  Jerry McCune led this charge.  Even though we lost, we were able to convince the Governor to put two commercial fishermen on the Board of Fish in 2002 for the first time in his 8 year tenure.

In Fall 2001, we put together an internal UFA summit to determine what the best course of action was for the overall industry.  Certainly the main issue was salmon and we came out of that three day session in Petersburg with some legislation and a commitment to work further on turning this industry around.  The recent Legislative Task Force has taken the ball from there.  Two of the seven members of the task force come from our board, Duncan Fields and Sue Aspelund.

In 2002 we put our back into then-Senator Frank Murkowski’s campaign for Governor.  I am pleased to remind you that he won that race handily and that this is the first time that UFA has been heavily and actively involved in helping to elect a Governor in our state.  We endorsed Governor Murkowski’s campaign in May of last year.

Also in 2002, we became involved, just as many of our groups had with Stellers the year before, with another lawsuit involving the Marine Mammal Protection Act.  Three environmental groups have sued NMFS to shut down or curtail fisheries ranging from Bristol Bay and Copper River to Southeast.  We’re still in the middle of this as of this writing.
There are many, many, many other issues that we’ve successfully and unsuccessfully dealt with over the past couple years.  These were just a few examples.

Now, I’ll give you a quick rundown on where to find information about UFA and how UFA is structured.  There are many places where you can find information about UFA.  On the Alaska Report (www.alaskareport.com ), run by Johnny Rice of Ketchikan, you can look up a search program for UFA updates.   Just type in any subject or name, including our board
members to see if they’re pulling their weight.  Our website is www.ufa-fish.org   Our Executive Director is Tom Gemmell.  His email address is ufa1@ufa-fish.org   I’m the President, Bob Thorstenson, Jr. You can reach me by directing email or calls through the office.  Office phone# is 907-586-2820 or Wireless Matrix satellite 6449.

Our Vice-President is Sue Aspelund and she actually was pretty much the acting President from June through November of 2002 as I was busy fishing in Southeast and Puget Sound.  Get in touch with her through the office as well.  They’re pretty quick in their turnaround calls.

At the office you’ll find Mark Vinsel, our office manager, working year round with Mr. Gemmell.

During the legislative session from January through May, you’ll find “Mr. UFA”, Jerry McCune working as our lobbyist.  Jerry develops legislative strategy as well as carrying out board policy and helping bills through the House and Senate committees and to the floor.

UFA has 34 board members.  Three are elected by the UFA general membership.  Currently those three are myself, Bruce Schactler (Kodiak) and Jeff Steele (Kodiak).    The next vote for at-large members is this next summer so if you want to get involved this is your chance.   Make sure your membership is current and just file your name with Tom G. at (907) 586-2820. It’s disturbing when I hear dissent on how this organization ought to be run and then the dissenters never seem to have the time to actually challenge the board seats of those who are purportedly on the wrong track.

The other 31 board members are representatives of the 31 member groups of UFA.  I won’t list them all here but alphabetically I believe the first one is the Alaska Crab Coalition (operating in the Bering Sea) and the last one is the Western Gulf of Alaska Fishermen’s Association (representing small trawlers who operate from the Sand Point area).  In between you would find trollers, gillnetters, setnetters, longliners, crabbers, seiners, hatchery associations, etc, etc

UFA is a Committee-run structure.  The Chairmen of each committee bring issues to the organization and then a consensus or a majority-rule is developed on each issue or policy.

Our chairs and their committees are as follows:

Administration: Duncan Fields (Kodiak) and Rob Zuanich (Anchorage)
Statewide: Sue Aspelund (Also VP, from Cordova) and Jerry McCune(Cordova)
Marketing: Bruce Schactler (Kodiak) and Scott McAllister (Juneau)
Subsistence: David Bedford (Juneau)
FarmFish: Dale Kelley (Juneau)
Membership: Gig Decker (Wrangell)
National: Joe Childers (former Alaskan-currently Seattle)

In closing I’ve got just a few reminders.  The times are challenging for many of us.  We’re in this together.  This is your organization and your biggest and best chance to affect big change to help us get back to a point where we can once again make a family wage living.  And if you’re one of the smart ones who’s diversified or whatever, thanks for pitching in as well.  We never know when a regulation or environmental lawsuit is going to change your fortunes and we always want to be on guard for that as well.  Kind of like preventative maintenance for you folks.

If you have any issue that you believe that UFA should be handling or a direction that you’d like to see UFA run in, just let us know.  Aside from Tom, Mark and Jerry we are all volunteers and we could use input and help from all over the state, and even from those of you who are
carpetbaggers like myself.  I’ll repeat the email address and phone # in case you missed it at the top.  ufa1@ufa-fish.org  is the email and the # is (907) 586-2820. 

Sincerely,

Bob Thorstenson, Jr.
President, United Fishermen of Alaska

26. Smart marketers know what women want November 2002 Trendwatch

Seafood industry looks to innovative marketing and product development to tap female buying clout

By Bernie Monegain

Seafood merchandisers may have known for years that it’s women who decide where, when and how to buy, prepare and eat seafood.  But it’s taken them a long time to step up to the plate and develop products and marketing campaigns aimed specifically at women.

Women comprise 69 percent of supermarket shoppers, according to Progressive Grocer magazine’s 2001 annual report, and that number has budged little over the years. Women want quick, easy-to-prepare, tasty, healthful and kid-friendly meals.

To deliver, seafood marketers are looking to new product development and better marketing of existing products.

Women are usually more health-conscious, family-conscious and pressed for time, says Linda Driscoll of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute. Often, they are managing both career and family, doing volunteer work and keeping in touch with a circle of friends and business acquaintances.

Driscoll, who oversees marketing campaigns for ASMI, believes the group was right on target with its “Get In the Pink” salmon ads that appeared in Woman’s Day, Cooking Light and Catholic Digest during Lent. The ads emphasized the value of omega-3 fish oils and reminded women that a can of salmon is as versatile as a can of tuna. The campaign included new
booklets of recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a section devoted to kid-friendly recipes.

Driscoll examined the ingredients in recipes carefully, making sure the list was short, the ingredients were readily available and the recipes made sense. There’s no point to offering a recipe that calls for a third of a can of evaporated milk, she says. “What do you do with the other two-thirds?”

Driscoll says Nielsen Scantrack reports showed double-digit increases in canned salmon sales in regions where the ads appeared. She notes that this is not necessarily an accurate gauge of the campaign’s effectiveness, since the data also reflect sales activity from any brand
promotions occurring at the same time.

ASMI’s salmon campaign might have been the exception to the rule, says Linda Candler, VP of communications for the National Fisheries Institute in Washington, D.C. Too often, seafood marketers “miss the boat by not respecting our intelligence and our time,” she says.

“When these products are marketed to women, it’s still a 1950s kind of approach,” one that assumes unlimited time and an interest in preparing complicated entrées from a long list of ingredients.

Europeans have the right idea, Candler says. European markets carry a vast array of seafood products that are ready to eat or ready to heat and eat, from escargots to salmon pinwheels to a range of fresh fish — marinated and/or sauced and ready for the oven or microwave.

Pat Shanahan, a seafood industry consultant in Seattle, agrees that most seafood marketing campaigns fall short, particularly in their health message.

“We still have to get it into the vernacular,” Shanahan says, “that [seafood] is a really healthy choice for all members of the family, not just women or guys with heart problems.”

Most women typically rotate the family menu among seven to 10 recipes, she says, noting, “We need to get fish to be one or two of their meals.”

To do that, Shanahan says, the industry has to help dispel the notion that children don’t like fish.  “Fish is kid food,” Shanahan says. “So much of it is simple and mild.”

Several seafood companies are developing products to meet women’s needs, but that’s a tough job in an industry geared to moving poundage.

Ocean Pro Industries in Washing-ton, D.C., developed a line of 10 ready-to-heat Fish N’ Easy seafood entrées, including Maryland Style Crab Cakes, Teriyaki Tuna and Stuffed Salmon with Monterey Spice, packaged with a side of rice or potatoes. The Giant and Safeway grocery
chains carry the entrées, which are selling modestly, says Greg Casten, Ocean Pro’s president. They fly out of the store when they are on special for $3.49 but seem too expensive at $6.99 to $9.99 apiece, he says.

Casten says he has not been able to get supermarkets to lower their margins, and he is also discouraged by hefty slotting fees. “It’s such a good-old-boy network in the seafood world,” he says.  Casten spent $1 million for the limited launch of Fish N’ Easy. He’s losing a little
money on the effort. To go nationwide with his brand, he’d have to spend another $1 million or $2 million, he says. He’s not sure if he will.

Morey’s Seafood International has always targeted women in both marketing and product development, says Sara Danforth, Morey’s marketing manager. Morey’s Classic line of marinated salmon entrées can be baked or microwaved and include a pop-up timer to prevent overcooking. The entrées have proven popular, but Danforth declined to discuss specific
numbers.

Cuisine Solutions, which prepares seafood for the foodservice industry, has targeted women in recent months by placing heat-and-serve entrées in Safeways and Krogers in test markets. The fish is cooked under water to preserve the protein and is then vacuum packed and frozen.

“We were thinking of the working mother trying to provide the most nutritious meals to her family with limited time and skills,” says Robert Murphy, chief operating officer of the Alexandria, Va.-based company. “She’s juggling kids and a job, and she doesn’t want to go to
McDonald’s every night on the way home.”

Effectively appealing to women doesn’t have to mean developing new products but doing a better job of selling seafood as inherently easy to prepare, flavorful, healthful and nutritious, says chef and seafood promotor Gary Puetz.

Seventy-seven percent of seafood in the United States is eaten away from home, he adds, citing a grocers’ association survey. Women don’t cook seafood at home because they’re afraid it will be an overcooked, stinky meal that will make the kids turn up their noses.

“We need to tell ’em and show ’em,” says Puetz.  As he sees it, and Shanahan agrees, the secret to selling more fish to women — and to men, for that matter — is simple: Just give them a little more information.

Bernie Monegain is a freelance writer and editor in Brunswick, Maine