Tag Archives: 65 communities

CDQs bring millions in fishing profits — and jobs — to poor western Alaska villages

Congress tried to honor that connection when it created the Community Development Quota, or CDQ, program, in 1992. Before CDQs, commercial fishing was dominated by outside interests, most notably from foreign countries and other states, said Clem Tillion, who helped create the program as then-Gov. Wally Hickel’s fisheries guru. The program gave six groups, meant to represent a total of 65 communities along a 50-mile stretch of the Bering Sea coast, an allocation in certain Bering Sea fisheries managed by the federal government. The groups are nonprofit corporations that represent a total 27,000 Alaska residents. Each has a set geographic range in Western Alaska, from Atka to Diomede. more@alaskadispatch 13:51