Fairbanks\u2019 Ruth Burnett Sport Fish Hatchery is a towering complex of tanks, tubes and growing fish.<\/p>\n
It also carried a towering price tag. When it opened in 2012, three years late, it cost $50 million \u2014 double the budgeted cost.<\/p>\n
Healy Republican Rep. David Talerico is now proposing a way to bolster the state\u2019s fisheries on the cheap. On Friday, Talerico proposed House Bill 220, which would create a \u201cfisheries enhancement permit\u201d allowing groups or individuals to take eggs from fish, grow them into smolt, then release the hatched fish into the wild.<\/p>\n
The permit would also allow a group or individual to \u201cenhance habitat and augment nutrients\u201d in state waterways to support fish.<\/p>\n
If that sounds like a fish hatchery, it\u2019s intentional.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I\u2019m trying to do is open things up,\u201d Talerico said. \u201cIt could be private companies, nonprofits … whoever thinks they can come up with the funding and put the fish into the river.\u201d<\/p>\n
With state funding to Fish and Game expected to be among the items cut in next year\u2019s budget, Talerico wants something else to step up and fill the gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a tool in our toolbox to support Fish and Game\u2019s effort,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Talerico\u2019s district includes Fort Yukon and Tanana, Yukon River communities that have been hit by restrictions on king salmon fishing. Along the Yukon, salmon \u2014 particularly kings \u2014 are a subsistence fish, and after meager runs in the previous few years, people are at danger of going hungry. The high cost of transportation precludes easy access to manufactured food.<\/p>\n
Talerico said he envisions the permits as something accessible to tribal organizations, even sportsmen\u2019s associations. \u201cThose guys know how to raise money in a hurry,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
During the upcoming session, Talerico said he expects he\u2019ll \u201chave to talk a blue streak\u201d to explain his plans, but he envisions it as one small way to help the state\u2019s budget picture.<\/p>\n
If many smaller facilities can do the work of a handful of larger facilities, \u201cI personally think it\u2019s helping Alaska\u2019s budget,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we get money invested that way, we\u2019re helping ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fairbanks\u2019 Ruth Burnett Sport Fish Hatchery is a towering complex of tanks, tubes and growing fish. It also carried a towering price tag. When it opened in 2012, three years late, it cost $50 million \u2014 double the budgeted cost. Healy Republican Rep. David Talerico is now proposing a way to bolster the state\u2019s fisheries […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":426,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[34,149],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-23021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","tag-alaska-legislature","tag-outdoors"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/426"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23021\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23021"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=23021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}