Tag Archives: House Fisheries Committee

Alaska: Commercial fishing is a good investment

“This is probably not well-known,” said Sam Rabung, director of the commercial fisheries division for the Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game… Rabung pointed out that the commercial fishing industry is the largest private sector employer in Alaska, putting almost 60,000 people to work annually. “It contributes about $172 million directly in taxes, fees and self-assessments to state, local and federal governments, and contributes an annual average of about $5.6 billion in economic output to the Alaska economy,”  >click to read< 20:32

Bill aimed at helping younger fishermen

As young Alaskans gather in Juneau for the sixth annual Young Fishermen’s Summit next week to explore ways to get a leg up in an increasingly challenging and expensive industry, Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, a member of the House Fisheries Committee, is trying to help. Kreiss-Tomkins and other members of the committee are working on a bill to create community banks to buy limited entry permits from people selling out in order to be able to lease them to people primarily in rural communities who cannot afford to buy them outright. Read the article here 10:47

Bill to eliminate CFEC moves out of Fisheries Committee

According to Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission gets too much money for too little work that is does poorly anyway. Commercial fishing industry representatives oppose the bill almost unanimously, opting instead to let CFEC fix its inefficiencies on its own. During the 2014 legislative session, Rep. Paul Seaton, R-Homer, introduced a similar bill to Stutes’s. Read the rest here 21:22

Bill to ax Alaska fish commission passes out of committee

The House Fisheries Committee on Thursday passed a bill that would eliminate the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission and move its duties to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. The unanimous vote came despite fishermen’s objections that the bill upends the separation of power between the commission that oversees Alaska’s limited-entry fisheries like salmon and the agency that regulates commercial fishing. Read the rest here 13:02