04/26/2006 Taskforce Meeting
April 26, 2006
Kodiak GOA Taskforce Meeting
Task Force Members Present:
Steve Branson
Chris Holland
John Whiddon
Jay Stinson
Alexus Kwatcha
Oliver Holm
Theresa Peterson
Julie Kavanaugh
Matt Moir
Cecil Ranney
Gabriel Saravia
Duncan Fields
Norm Wooten
Debora King
Topics for Discussion
1) Skipper/crew provisions within the Council motion
2) Council requested further public input regarding:
Limited duration of harvester quota shares
Subalternatives for formation and dissolution of processor linkages
Community linkages for single-processor communities or regions
Processor linkages that expire over a graduated basis over a number of years
No processor linkages
Need more public input in the taskforce process - suggestion made to have a meeting after
normal business hours that would allow more people to attend.
Suggestion made to schedule topics and invite public to respond.
Need to recap what has been discussed and what topics will be discussed at future meetings.
Prior to Council meeting in June, a public forum should be held - suggested date May 31st?
Suggestion made to have a public survey conducted prior to the meeting to ensure
responses/input from a good cross-section of the community. Discussion followed regarding
the value/purpose of the public meeting/survey.
Skipper/Crew Provisions - based on Skipper and Crew Discussion Paper - Gulf of Alaska
Rationalization North Pacific Fishery Management Council April 2006 document.
" 1) maintain current skipper and crew employment levels;
2) establish skipper and crew share holdings;
3) compensate skippers and crew that lose employment as a result of consolidation;
4) maintain current level of negotiating leverage for future skippers and crew; and
5) ensure current (or experienced) skippers and crew receive priority in future
employment in the fisheries; and
6) ensure a portion of the quota pool is held by active skippers and crew."
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Difficult to do because of the need to establish history - also need to incorporate
economic structures, i.e. fuel prices, etc.
Must be flexible in order for fleet to accommodate economics
Must recognize that with consolidation crews are severely impacted
Need to retain some historic crew share so as not to disadvantage the community -
need stability
Must recognize outside forces that affect the stability of the fisheries, i.e. local boats
purchased by large entities
Concern raised regarding other rationalization plans have freed up excess capital
which affects local resources
Need to define set of participants
Jobs that remain must be at a level of some minimal compensation
Must have community protection within any plan that is implemented
Discussion of coops - potential purposes
manage by catch
allow boats not to fish
work with processors - deliveries, prosecution of the fisheries
allow the community the best use of the resource
increase ex-vessel value of the fisheries
improved information ex-change
fewer skippers/crew due to consolidation
Proposed Policy Statement for Discussion
"A recommendation from the Kodiak Rationalization taskforce, as a goal for GOA
rationalization, to limit the loss of skipper and crew jobs so that skipper an crew employment
in the fishery does not decline by more than 10% in the first 5 years of the program and no
more than 20% during the life of the program."
Discussion
how much tax required to implement the program? May result in a similar situation in
a consolidation program
herring program is different than what is being proposed in the GOA groundfish -
herring: closed class of boats, individual fishing rights
placing a hard number sets very tight parameters - needs to be balanced by the
resources available (vessels, economics, biological resources) and management
structure (regulations, etc.)
Could allocate percentage of rights to the crew directly - Percentage of share would
go to the skipper/crew and they would need to be actually fishing
Allocate without ownership a percentage of the T AC
Members of the coop must be working fishermen - coop would provide for entry level
as members leave the coop
Benchmark - average number of vessels actively fishing during a set of given years
Discussion on rewarding only skipper/crews with fishing history while creating barriers
for entry level skipper/crews
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Terry Haines made a presentation/answered questions on the skipper/crew coop program in
place on the East Coast. Points are awarded based on qualifying years. Coop is made up of
working fishermen, local delivery, pay scale set, low by catch and open market.
Next Meeting: 9:00 a.m. May 3,2006 Topics to be discussed:
Public meeting
Review council motion
Consolidation - coops
Public Comments
Donna Jones - we should be looking at existing management tools
AI Burch - supports 300,000 pound catch limits
Coops can create tools for management of the fisheries.
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