Exclusive Fishing Clubs Direct Council Decisions

Council Promotes Corporate Fishing Interests While Ignoring Existing Problems

Anchorage, Alaska  – During the first year of Alaska’s crab rationalization program, 1,150 fishermen lost their jobs and millions of crabs were wasted, and yet the North Pacific Fishery Management Council failed to consider socio-economic or environmental effects of rationalization in a requested report reviewed this week. A coalition of consumer and fishing groups criticized the report for deflecting blame for the drop in crab price away from processor domination of the fishery and criticized the council for considering a sector split that could set up the cod fishery for the same kind of program.

According to a report released by Food & Water Watch last year, the crab rationalization program has enabled just a few companies to dominate the industry through the much-debated policy of allocating individual processing quotas. This system encourages fishermen to discard low-value crab back into the sea -- often to die -- and dumping entire catches if the price is too low.  In the first season, the fall of 2005, an estimated 5.8 million red king crabs were discarded into the sea.

"By focusing on all the wrong issues, the council’s review of crab rationalization managed to omit that individual fishing quotas do not protect fish populations, marine ecosystems or the long-term interests of fishing communities,” said Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch Executive Director. "Crab rationalization has left Alaska crabbers and coastal communities out in the cold while warming the wallets of a few individuals and corporations."

“At a previous council meeting, business owners, citizens, and fishermen testified that they were against any type of privatization, to the tune of 90 percent singing the same song, ‘No more ratz’,” said Shawn Dochtermann of Alaska Jig Association.  “Something must be done to protect local small boat fishermen and coastal Alaskan communities from being robbed of their children’s future.”

Even though the council has postponed discussion of a rationalization program for groundfish, if the council authorizes a sector split in the cod fishery, they would be setting the fishery up for future rationalization and creating a disadvantage for boat operators and crew.  The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 2006 contains a provision that allows an individual fishing quota program to be developed if at least 50 percent of the permit holders, or those holding more than 50 percent of the allocation, submit a petition to the Secretary of Commerce.  This would force the council to move forward with an IFQ program and potentially cut out small boat operators, because initial allocations of fisheries quota are often based on historic catch.

 “A race for privatization by the fixed-gear sector will bring with it the ills of rationalization we have been so painfully acquainted with: fleet consolidation, forced processor linkage, crew share reduction, jobs loss and capital flight,” said Steve Branson of Crewman's Association.