This article has been corrected to note Austin Ahmasuk is not affiliated with Kawerak, as was incorrectly reported in the original version of this article.
Membership on the Alaska Board of Fisheries would be restructured to guarantee representation for the state’s different fishing sectors, under a bill pending in the Legislature.
The measure, House Bill 125, would require that the board have designated seats to represent commercial, sport and subsistence harvesters.
Two members would represent each of those sectors, and another member would represent the scientific community, under the bill’s provisions. The subsistence representatives would be nominated by the Alaska Federation of Natives, according to the bill. The science representative would be nominated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to the bill.
The Board of Fisheries, with members appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Legislature, makes allocation and regulatory decisions that are carried out by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
The bill would help the board pay more attention to subsistence and protect the resources upon which rural residents depend, said the sponsor, Rep. Nellie Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay.
“What this bill (does) I see as bringing an equal voice to the table for subsistence users, not only in my district but in rural Alaska and all of Alaska. I see this as a positive step forward to bringing sustainability to the fisheries for subsistence users as well,” Jimmie said at a hearing Tuesday of the House Fisheries Committee.
It was the first hearing for the bill.
Rachael Gunn, Jimmie’s chief of staff, described the bill as a needed reform to better manage fisheries that are threatened by climate change, management mistakes and overharvesting.
“This change prevents one group from dominating decision-making and ensures that science conservation and traditional knowledge shape policy and aligns Alaska with modern governance models that prioritize sustainability,” she said.
The need is urgent, she said, citing recent collapses of Western Alaska salmon runs, which have acutely affected Jimmie’s rural district, as well as the collapses of Bering Sea crab stocks and Gulf of Alaska Pacific cod stocks.
The bill has some key support. House Finance Committee co-Chair Neal Foster, D-Nome, and House Majority Leader Chuck Kopp, R-Anchorage, have signed on as co-sponsors.
The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, the state’s largest Tribal organization, is also backing the bill.
“Tlingit and Haida strongly supports House Bill 125, which brings a long overdue and much needed balance to the Board of Fisheries,” Richard Peterson, the tribal organization’s president, told the committee.
Among other benefits, the bill would elevate the role of traditional knowledge in management, he said. “Our knowledge and science is very real,” he said. He cited, as an example, the Indigenous tradition of using specially designed halibut hooks to catch fish of specific sizes, which is important to stock management and sustainability.
But there are misgivings about and criticism of certain elements.
One area of concern is the bill’s provisions giving the governor authority to reject subsistence and scientific nominees.
“Allowing the governor to reject the list and request another can introduce political bias into the nomination process. The governor may favor nominees who align with their political agenda or interests, rather than those who are best suited to represent subsistence and science,” Austin Ahmasuk of Nome said in written comments.
Cordova commercial fisher Jerry McCune also described the governor’s role as problematic.
Getting better representation on the board is important, but a governor’s preferences could stymie that goal, McCune told the committee.
“You’re still stuck with what the governor gives you and what the legislature approves. So you might not get anybody that you want on the board,” said McCune, a longtime leader of Cordova District Fishermen United and a former United Fisherman of Alaska president..
To help address that problem, the bill should be refined to have more specific definitions and guidance about who qualifies for the designated positions, McCune said.
The potential role of AFN also drew some criticism. Ahmasuk suggested that regional subsistence boards rather than AFN nominate members.
Rep. Rebecca Himschoot, I-Sitka, asked if the designations for board membership could also consider geographic diversity.
“An issue for my region on the Board of Fish has been the absence of representation at all from my region. So would there be a way to parse this even further into also assuring some geographic representation on the board?” Himschoot, whose district is in Southeast Alaska, asked Gunn and Jimmie.
Gunn said it might be difficult for the board, at its current size, to adequately represent different regions of the state. In the future, membership could be refined with more consideration of geography, though that would probably require an expansion, she said.
For now, the changes that House Bill 125 would make could be starting points toward better representation, Gunn said.
“Any way that this bill could pass at the moment would be an improvement of what we currently have, which is mismanaging our fisheries and having some poor outcomes,” she said.
The bill was held in the committee awaiting further action.
• Yereth Rosen came to Alaska in 1987 to work for the Anchorage Times. She has reported for Reuters, for the Alaska Dispatch News, for Arctic Today and for other organizations. She covers environmental issues, energy, climate change, natural resources, economic and business news, health, science and Arctic concerns. This article originally appeared online at alaskabeacon.com. Alaska Beacon, an affiliate of States Newsroom, is an independent, nonpartisan news organization focused on connecting Alaskans to their state government.
