Tag Archives: Alaska’s commercial fishing communities

King salmon disaster relief gets caught in political net – handy-dandy bona-fide official fishery disaster declaration

Remember how last summer, Alaska’s king fisheries collapsed due to low runs? And then in September, the state got its handy-dandy bona-fide official fishery disaster declaration from the U.S. Department of Commerce, which is a lot like saying, “Help is maybe kind-of sort-of on the way.” The designation makes those regions impacted by fishery disasters eligible for federal funds. But it takes an act of Congress to allocate the money. And, as of now, waiting for help to arrive to Alaska’s commercial fishing communities is looking more and more like a bit from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot. Read More