The bycatch of chinook and chum salmon is on the agenda, as the spring meeting of the North Pacific Management Council gets underway in Sitka this week (June 9-14).

In addition to hearing how much salmon is being intercepted in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea by the trawl fisheries, the council will review a proposal to supplement the human observer program with electronic monitoring.

Note: Find links to the Council’s agenda and meeting livestream here.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council regulates the so-called “federal fisheries” which take place outside the three-mile limit of Alaska’s state waters, and within the exclusive economic zone of the United States which extends 200 miles offshore.

Strictly by the numbers, that’s dozens of different species of bottomfish and crab, and the council will divide its time over five days among many of them. But the headline issues – as determined by the number of comments the council has received – are the bycatch of salmon by the trawl fleet in the Bering Sea and in the Gulf of Alaska, and the related issue of Electronic Monitoring, or the installation of cameras aboard trawlers to ensure compliance with existing bycatch reporting methods.

Salmon bycatch has come to the forefront in recent years due to steep declines in chinook stocks in many of Alaska’s major river systems, and severe cutbacks in opportunities for subsistence, sport, and commercial fisheries in many areas of Alaska. Among the stack of comments on the issue, the Council has received a letter from the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Western Interior Alaska, Eastern Interior Alaska, and Seward Peninsula Subsistence Regional Advisory Councils requesting a significant reduction in the chinook and chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea commercial fisheries. The groups want to see the bycatch cap of kings reduced from 45,000 to 16,000, and the cap of chum salmon reduced from 500,000 to 250,000.

For others, that’s not enough. The Sitka Fish & Game Regional Advisory Council last October took strong position against halibut bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska; one of the authors of the Sitka letter, Eric Jordan, doesn’t mince words in his latest comments regarding salmon bycatch: “To me the issue isn’t bycatch,” Jordan writes, “Trawling is not an acceptable way to harvest fish and like salmon traps and high seas salmon traps it must be prohibited area by area starting with halibut nurseries and crab savings grounds.”

Regardless of whether it lowers the cap on salmon bycatch during its Sitka meeting, the Council will consider how to better enforce the existing cap. Since 2020 some trawl vessels have been equipped with Electronic Monitoring – or EM. The Electronic Monitoring systems aren’t intended for “catch accounting,” or to identify and record every salmon caught in a trawl net; rather, EM is intended for compliance monitoring when the catch is offloaded at a processor. Comments to the Council overwhelmingly support adopting EM, but for two: One, a fisheries observer, argued that EM greatly increased the workload for herself and her colleagues who sampled fish at processors. A second commenter said simply, “Don’t put 100% cameras on our trawlers, it will be game over for the trawl fleet. The council shouldn’t bow to a group of whiners that are too lazy to move to better fishing.”

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council meets in Sitka through June 14.

In spite of everything, 2015 will be remembered as a good year in Sitka. It’s the year that the community’s faith, grit, and forward-thinking principles were put to the test. (KCAW photo/Emily Kwong)

In spite of everything, 2015 will be remembered as a good year in Sitka. It’s the year that the community’s faith, grit, and forward-thinking principles were put to the test. It’s the year that Sitkans forged tragedy, loss, and crisis into a renewed sense of purpose. It’s the year than many of us decided to try and lead better lives, for ourselves and others.

KCAW’s Robert Woolsey has this look back at 2015.

Downloadable audio.

If you think I’m going to exaggerate the significance of 2015 you should think about this: The top story of 2014 was the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Sitka’s school board takes the Ice Bucket Challenge.

Yup. You had forgotten all about that.

Sitka’s 2015 will be memorable because our biggest stories were clustered together in a year that was already sprinkled with interesting news stories, like the state’s closing all its parks here, its goal-line stand against an invasive marine species called D-vex, the school district outsourcing Community Schools, the Sitka Softball team winning its 5th state championship in 6 years, or the Cross Country  and Girls Basketball teams winning its first titles — ever. Go Wolves!

The Lady Wolves made it 5 out of 6 in Softball in 2015. (Facebook photo)

The epic news began on Monday August 17, when the Electric Department notified media that 30,000 gallons of diesel fuel had leaked from a storage tank at the Jarvis St. generator plant. Much of it had been recovered in a concrete containment structure designed for just this emergency. But an unknown amount — possibly as much as 7,000 gallons — had drained into a storm sewer that emptied into Jamestown Bay. (Note: This figure was subsequently revised down to 2,500 gallons.)

The state and city set up an incident command center to manage the situation, which would prove to be provident. The very next morning, Tuesday August 18, a sopping-wet storm system dropped down the outer coast and soaked Sitka with as much as 5 inches of rain in under six hours.

The deluge triggered 7 landslides on the Sitka road system, one of them sweeping through a new development on Kramer Avenue, destroying a house and killing two workers inside, the brothers Elmer and Ulises Diaz, age 24 and 25, and also taking the life of 62-year old William Stortz, Sitka’s building official.

City engineer David Longtin performing recovery work at the landslide that nearly overtook him. Longtin was not totally at ease — “I’m keeping my eye on it,” he said. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Municipal engineer David Longtin and an excavator operator, Jerome Mahoskey, escaped. Longtin said they had very little time to react.

“We heard a rumbling. It didn’t immediately dawn on us what it was. We looked at each other with puzzled expressions and looked at the hill, and saw these 200-foot trees falling like dominoes — boom, boom, boom, one after another.”

The next day, Gov. Bill Walker flew to Sitka to personally assess the scene.

Gov. Bill Walker (right) and Sitka Mayor Mim McConnell visited the site of the Kramer Avenue landslide on Wednesday, August 19. (Rachel Waldholz, KCAW)

“I’ve been governor about nine months now and I’ve prided myself by saying I’ve never had a bad day. Well, I can’t say that anymore. This is a really tough day.”

And it would get tougher. Volunteers flooded the firehall with offers of assistance, but the threat of more rain forced officials to keep most everyone off the slope. And it soon became clear that there would be no rescue. Grace Harbor Church transformed into a 24-hour care center, for recovery workers, for families evacuated from the surrounding neighborhoods. Working in shifts, coaches and friends from their former high school baseball team found the bodies of Elmer and Ulises about 3 days after the slide. William’s body was finally found a week after, on August 25.

Seattle Fire Battalion Chief Thomas Richardson flew to Sitka to advise. His department had managed the slide in Oso, Washington, in March 2014, which claimed 43 lives.

“Yeah, it’s very similar. In fact it’s déjà vu.”

The video of the arrest of 18-year-old Franklin Hoogendorn will be examined by the FBI< along with Sitka’s police procedures. (YouTube image capture)

Then came the video. Over Halloween weekend a Sitka middle school teacher, Alexander Allison, posted a pair of videos on social media. One, of his own arrest as a bystander watching a DUI investigation, and a second showing then 18-year old Franklin Hoogendorn, a Mt. Edgecumbe High School student, being taken into custody by Sitka police, and being tasered multiple times as three officers subdued him in the local jail. The Hoogendorn video went viral.

Police chief Sheldon Schmitt said the video only told part of the story.

“What you’re seeing on the video is the culmination of a longer contact.”

Schmitt maintains that Hoogendorn was resisting — since the moment officers confronted him earlier in the evening outside a Sitka bar — and that the use of the taser conformed to police policies in place at the time of the arrest in September 2014.

Since the video went public, Hoogendorn has obtained legal counsel. His attorney, Myron Angstman, says the video tells its own story.

“It doesn’t really matter what I think the tape says, or what you think the tape says, or what the police chief thinks the tape says, or what the city manager thinks the tape says — because the jury has the final decision as to what that tape says.”

The conduct of the Sitka police officers is being reviewed by the FBI. The Sitka Tribe sent a letter formally asking the bureau to investigate possible racial bias in Sitka’s police department. At the request of media, Sitka released its police operating procedures manual, but the 342-page document doesn’t spell out guidelines for use of a taser. Top officers in the department held a town hall meeting with Tribal citizens to discuss concerns and ease tensions, but could not directly address the Hoogendorn incident since it appears headed to court.

The rest of the news in 2015 was lighter, but no less important. For example, the CEO of Sitka Community Hospital bolted. Well, technically Jeff Comer skipped town in 2014, but the news became public when he failed to show up for a meeting with the assembly on January 2.

Comer had been working in Sitka for less than three months. His abrupt departure, paired with a bizarre story of being attacked by an unidentified couple on a Sitka trail, left people more amused than worried.

The hospital classroom was packed for the first board meeting following the disappearance of Jeff Comer. Staffers urged transparency as the board moves forward. “A lot of what’s happened has been a mystery to us,” said one. (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

Municipal attorney Robin Koutchak assured the hospital board that Comer would not be coming back.

“Ann, I think he’s gone. (Laughter) Elvis left the building.”

Sitka businessman Rob Allen later took the job of CEO, stabilizing the hospital’s finances, and possibly restoring sanity.

Sitka wrapped up the largest public works project in its history in 2015 – the $157-million Blue Lake Hydro expansion.
Electrical department engineer Dean Orbison was boosterish about the project for the two years it took to raise the dam and build a new powerhouse. But when he cut the ribbon in May, he didn’t seem to upset too take off his hard hat once and for all.

Project Manager Dean Orbison (left) and Mayor Mim McConnell smashed a bottle of champagne against one of the new, blue turbines. (Emily Kwong/KCAW)

“This particular project, this success, and working together with this team is by far the pinnacle of my career. Which ends today!”

Another significant departure this year was John Straley’s. The former writer laureate of Alaska retired from a three-decade career as a criminal investigator, most recently for the Public Defender’s Office in Sitka. Straley drew on his work experience to write nine novels, which he says, had far more “moral certainty” than real life.

“Reality is always so much more complicated, with so much more gray area. And in stories, you always make it work out faster.”

John Straley, in his office at the Sitka Public Defender. With up to 50 cases in play at any given time, Straley says the work “can be rewarding, but also heartbreaking.” (KCAW photo/Robert Woolsey)

As if to illustrate Straley’s point, the family of Lael Grant in June asked the state to issue her death certificate. The 33-year old mother of two went missing in 2012, with no ID in her possession, and no other means to travel off-island.

Her sister, Erika Burkhouse, believed Grant’s disappearance was connected to her involvement with Sitka’s drug culture. She didn’t want to give up hope, but the family needed to move on.

“I think she just got too far in, you know. She was in a really bad place after my dad passed away. So I would like to think so. She was a strong person, she really was. Those boys meant the world to her, and despite what was happening to her, and her unhealthy lifestyle, she still somehow managed to be a good mom.”

The state ruled Grant’s death a likely homicide. The case remains open and unsolved.

The 80-foot tender Kupreanof slips beneath the waves just seconds after the last crew member was hoisted aboard an Air Station Sitka helicopter. (USCG image)

And life also made headlines in 2015. Early in the morning on June 10, the 80-foot fishing tender Kupreanof began taking on water offshore of Lituya Bay. An Air Station Sitka helicopter arrived on scene and found the Kupreanof about half-submerged in rough seas, with four men on board.

The helicopter commander, Chris Stoeckler, asked the crew to get in their life raft, but the Kupreanof radioed back, with a problem.

“I’ve got one man that’s pretty old and can’t swim.”

A rescue swimmer was lowered to assist all four men into a raft, and all were safely hoisted to the helicopter, just as the Kupreanof slipped under the waves. There is a video of this rescue available online that is more real than any reality television you’ll ever see, though it plays like another day at the office for the cool heads flying the helicopter.

Simeon Swetsov, Jr., left, the mayor of St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands, choked up as he testified before the NPFMC advisory panel. Beside him is Mateo Paz-Soldan. (Rachel Waldholz/KCAW)

Sitka hosted two major fisheries meetings this year, the State Board of Fisheries, and the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council. The meetings were filled with intense issues, but none more so than the Council’s deliberations over wasted halibut — or bycatch. The stakes are enormous for small-boat fishermen in the villages of Western Alaska. Member Duncan Fields was aggrieved when the rest of the council adopted bycatch limits favoring larger commercial interests.

“I acknowledge on a personal basis my identity with the folks living in Western Alaska, and their loss of economic opportunity, personal identity, and cultural legacy. I get it.”

On three separate occasions this fall young vandals tipped over headstones in the Russian Orthodox Cemetery. (KCAW photo/Emily Kwong)

Cultural legacy came into play in other news stories as well. This fall, Sitka’s Orthodox Cemetery was struck by three separate episodes of vandalism, where numerous headstones were tipped over. Bob Sam is the caretaker of the 200-year old cemetery, which holds the remains of mostly Alaska Natives.

“When you’re washing a headstone, it’s no different than washing somebody’s feet. You experience a kind of humility.”

Sam was nearing despair over the repeated vandalism, but help from the police department and cadets at the Sitka Trooper Academy helped restore his faith. After each incident, law enforcement personnel returned to the cemetery to raise the stones, some weighing hundreds of pounds. Sitka police later caught the culprits, a group of 8-10 year old children.

Another cultural rift was mended when the Alaska Day Committee was called out on its use of the name “Slave Auction” for an annual fundraiser at the Pioneer Bar. Pressure to drop the name came from the NAACP in Anchorage, in a press release issued on Alaska Day. In the auction, business owners agree to provide a service to a high bidder.
Event organizers felt that the otherwise benign, 31-year old event had been unfairly targeted. This is Mary Magnuson.

“This controversy frankly offends me a little bit, that people who know nothing about my community are pointing fingers and acting like we’re racist.”

The Sitka Tribe endorsed the NAACP’s position, saying “slave auction” was insensitive. The committee changed the name to “Alaska Day Auction,” and suggested that they would have welcomed a phone call from the NAACP, rather than a limelight.

There is cultural rift, and then there’s just culture.

Music: Cantina Band from Star Wars

On December 17, in Sitka and just about everywhere, fans flocked to the premiere of Episode VII of Star Wars. The intergalactic odyssey proved inter-generational, as parents stood in a line reaching toward St. Michael’s Cathedral to watch a film with their children, that they first saw as children themselves.

“This is probably the most important night of my life since I was 5 years old on Christmas Eve and watched Star Wars for the first time,” said one movie-goer.

Mike Romine stands in front of his home on Wachusetts Street. He even provided a low-power FM signal so viewers could listen to holiday music in their vehicles. (KCAW photo/Brielle Schaeffer)

And afterwards, on that evening and many others, Sitkans would get in their cars to drive to the corner of Kimsham and Wachusetts streets, to the home of Mike Romine, a Christmas light enthusiast and — for one month at least –probably Sitka’s best electrical customer.

Romine’s show has evolved over the past decade into something worthy of Vegas, but it isn’t heavy handed. As programmed lights climb a tower, they merge to form the words August 18, Elmer, Ulises, and Bill — the three Sitkans who perished in the landslide.

“I just knew that there were a lot of people that it affected. People just came together, it was a pretty big deal. And because I was thinking of them, most of Sitka probably was too. I think the families have appreciated it.”

Music: Wiz Khalifa’s See You Again.

And it’s been gestures like Mike Romine’s, large and small, bright and not so visible — too many to count, really — that turn a difficult year into a good one.

Let’s meet again in 2016. Happy New Year.

ADF&G Commissioner Sam Cotten speaks, while other council members, including Bill Tweit of Washington (right) look on. (Rachel Waldholz/KCAW)

After several days of emotional testimony, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted on Sunday afternoon (5-7-15) to reduce limits on halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea — by 21-percent overall.

Many in the groundfish fleet say it will take a big toll on their industry. But halibut fishermen in the Bering Sea say the cut isn’t big enough to save their communities.

The debate often pitted small boats against big boats, and Alaska’s halibut fleet against seafood companies largely based in Seattle — and in the end, the vote didn’t please many people.

Downloadable audio

Alaska council members David Long (left) and Simon Kineen were forced to recuse themselves. (Rachel Waldholz, KCAW)

Public testimony stretched over three days, as longliners from Southeast asked the council to save the halibut stock; crewmembers on Bering Sea trawlers asked the council to save their livelihoods; and residents of St. Paul, in the Pribilof Islands, asked council members to save their community.

Halibut bycatch has been a simmering issue at the council for more than twenty years, but it’s come to a head as halibut biomass has dropped over the last decade. Halibut fishermen across Alaska have seen cuts on the order of 70-percent, while the the amount available as bycatch hasn’t been reduced by an equivalent amount.  More halibut is now taken as bycatch by trawlers targeting other species in the Bering Sea than caught by halibut fishermen there.

This has hit few areas as hard as St. Paul.

“If we don’t have a job, if we can’t go out to the ocean where we live, the waters that surround our community, and earn our living from the bottom from the ocean, that would completely change our identity,” said Jeff Kauffman, of the Central Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association. “And to sit there on the beach and watch as the industrialized fisheries continue to take halibut, if we don’t have a fishery, I just think that’s absolutely wrong.”

Kauffman asked for a 50-percent reduction in bycatch caps.

But industry officials told the council that they’ve already taken major steps to reduce bycatch, like using nets that exclude larger halibut, and changing when and where they fish. They said there simply isn’t more they can do, except fish less.

That prospect terrified Brian Lang. He’s the deckboss on the F/V Vaerdal, a Bering Sea trawler. He says it’s one of the few jobs where he can make a living wage.

“And the reality that I’m facing right now is, anything over a 20-percent cut, I’m liable to be out of a job,” Lang said. “That means that I’m 36, having to start over from the bottom, with no education, and a family to take care of. It’s scary.”

After nearly 150 people testified, the discussion moved to the council. Alaska Fish & Game Commissioner Sam Cotten proposed a 29-percent cut in the caps, calling it “the bare minimum” to protect Bering Sea halibut fishermen.

But the council ended up adopting a smaller cut, proposed by Bill Tweit of Washington State. Tweit said anything larger would be too steep for industry to absorb.

Alaska council member Duncan Fields said the final vote wouldn’t provide relief for communities like St. Paul.

Linda Behnken, head of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, testified before the council on Saturday. (Rachel Waldholz, KCAW)

“I acknowledge on a personal basis my identity with the folks living in Western Alaska, And their loss of economic opportunity, personal identity, and cultural legacy,” Fields said, choking up. “I get it.”

Meanwhile, Tweit said he saw his proposal as just the first step in a longer process – a message that didn’t sit well with a Sitka audience full of halibut fishermen.

“I don’t want anybody to leave this meeting feeling like this was a step backwards,” Tweit said, to angry shouts from the crowd.

The entire debate was shaken by a procedural curveball. In a controversial ruling, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forced two Alaska council members to recuse themselves, because their employers have financial stakes in the groundfish industry. Ironically, the two support bigger cuts to bycatch.

Alaska normally holds a six-vote majority on the Council, while Washington State and Oregon appoint a total of four members, and the National Marine Fisheries Service holds one seat.

The final vote was 6 to 3, with the two recused members, David Long and Simon Kineen, indicating that they would have joined the three Alaskans who voted against the lower cuts. Alaskan Ed Dersham broke ranks and voted with the majority.

The final numbers are tricky: while the vote reduces the cap by about 21-percent, the affected fleets have been well under their caps in recent years. So the new cap is actually slightly higher than the total amount of bycatch taken last year.

But the cut varies among different groups. Flatfish trawlers in the so-called “Amendment 80 fleet,” which are responsible for most of the bycatch each year, took a cut of 25-percent  — or about 17-percent below last year’s numbers.

Chris Woodley is director of the Groundfish Forum, which represents many of those trawlers. He said that it’s a big hit.

“We’re extremely concerned about job loss in our fishery right now, about tying up vessels,” he said. “We need to sit down and assess the extent that this is going to damage our sector.”

For Myron Melovidov of St. Paul, the damage to his community looks devastating.

“We’re basically going to be put out of business. We’re shut d own. We’re sitting on the beach,” he said after the vote. “That really puts a roadblock on everything we’re trying to do for our community.”

In the end, all of the council members agreed on one thing: this isn’t their last word on the subject. As Bill Tweit told the audience, reducing bycatch is “squarely on the council’s agenda for awhile now.”

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council will hold its next meeting in October, in Anchorage. You can find more information at the council website, here.

But Bering Sea halibut fishermen say the cut isn’t big enough to save their communities.

The vote came after impassioned public testimony stretching over three days. Halibut biomass has declined over the past decade, and fishermen in communities like St. Paul, in the Pribilof Islands, face the possibility of being shut down entirely. They hoped that reducing bycatch would make more halibut available to fish.

Councilmember Duncan Fields said the final vote didn’t go nearly far enough.

“I acknowledge on a personal basis my identity with the folks living in Western Alaska,” he said, choking up. “And their loss of economic opportunity, personal identity, and cultural legacy. I get it.”

Alaska Fish & Game Commissioner Sam Cotten originally proposed a larger cut, of about 29-percent. He called it “the bare minimum” to protect Bering Sea fishermen.

But the Council adopted a smaller cut proposed by Bill Tweit of Washington State. Tweit said anything larger would be too steep for industry to absorb.

The numbers are tricky: While the final vote reduces the cap by about 21-percent, the affected fleets have been well under their caps in recent years. So the new cap is actually slightly higher than the total amount of bycatch taken last year.

But the cut varies among different groups. Big flatfish trawlers, who are responsible for most of the bycatch, will take the biggest cut. They must reduce the amount of halibut they catch by about 15-percent from last year’s numbers.

Chris Woodley is director of the Groundfish Forum, which represents many of those trawlers. He said that’s a big hit.

“We’re extremely concerned about job loss in our fishery right now, about tying up vessels,” he said. “We need to sit down and assess the extent that this is going to damage our sector.”

The cut passed 6 to 3. Two Alaska members were forced to recuse themselves, in a controversial ruling by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

We’ll have more on this story tonight (Mon 6-8-15), on Raven News. 

Simeon Swetsov, Jr., left, the mayor of St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands, choked up as he testified before the NPFMC advisory panel. Beside him is Mateo Paz-Soldan. (Rachel Waldholz/KCAW)

Emotions are running high as the North Pacific Fishery Management Council considers a proposal to reduce halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea.

Halibut fishermen are pushing the council to reduce how much of the fish can be taken accidentally — and discarded — by boats targeting other species. Meanwhile, trawlers and others say they’ve already reduced bycatch voluntarily, and lower limits would be ruinous.

The council got a preview of public sentiment during testimony before its advisory panel this week.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is meeting in Sitka through Tuesday (6-9-15). You can find links to the the full agenda here and listen online here. 

Downloadable audio

About 150 people have signed up to testify before the council on the issue of halibut bycatch. Many sharpened their arguments before the council’s advisory panel earlier in the week. That panel, made up of industry representatives, ended up reccomending the council cut bycatch caps by up to 45% for some gear types.

Retired Sitka longliner Carolyn Nichols told the panel she worries that if the Bering Sea groundfish fleet continues to take bycatch at current levels, it will endanger the halibut stock — and the future of halibut fishing.

“There are a lot of kids here, like my son, who’s taken over the boat,” she said. “[They ask,] ‘Why should I buy halibut quota? Because they’re just going to take it away from me when it goes down.'”

Commercial halibut fishermen have seen big cuts to their catch limits, as halibut biomass has declined over the past decade.

Nichols pointed out that Canada has managed to cut halibut bycatch significantly. On that point, she was challenged by panel member Patrick O’Donnell, of Kodiak.

O’Donnell: Do you understand that the Canadians reduced from 122 vessels down to 55 in part to accomplish the reductions? And the effects that would have on displacing processing crew, captains, and boats in the Bering Sea?

Nichols: Are you aware of the effects it’s going to have if the directed halibut fishery, the sport fishery, the charter fishery and the subsistence fishery goes down the drain in all of Alaska, Washington Canada and California?

John Nelson, captain of the Bering Sea flatfish trawler the Rebecca Irene, said his fleet isn’t getting credit for the extensive measures they’ve already put in place to avoid bycatch. That includes changing when and where they fish, and using nets that allow larger halibut to escape.

“There’s not a magic bullet here. The increments are going to be small at this point,” Nelson said. “We can make improvements. But it’s getting harder and harder. We’re really using all the tools at our disposal.”

Nelson said a 50-percent cut in the bycatch cap would force his fleet to shut down part of the year, and crewmembers would lose their jobs.

That’s already happened to halibut fishermen, said Sitkan Frank Balovich. Longliners like him have absorbed big cuts, he said. It’s time for the groundfish fleet to take theirs.

“I mean, why is their family more important than mine?” he asked. “Why are their kids more important than mine? Why is their boat more important than mine? Why is their crew more important than mine?”

He was echoed later that afternoon by Heather Mann, of the Midwater Trawlers Cooperative.

“Why is a crewmember on a directed halibut boat more important than a crewmember’s livelihood on a trawl boat?” she asked. “It’s not. It’s not more important.”

Mann said her fleet has reduced halibut bycatch to below 1-percent of their catch. She had a question for those who say they can do better: “How? How in this situation can the trawl catcher vessels in the Pacific Cod fishery do better?”

Meanwhile, for Simeon Swetsov, Jr, the mayor of St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands, it’s a matter of survival. In the Bering Sea around St. Paul, more halibut was taken as bycatch in the past few years than was caught by the commercial halibut fleet. If current trends don’t change, halibut fishermen in his region face being shut out of the fishery entirely. Swetsov choked up, talking about the impact.

“I’m extremely angry that we’re here today,” he said, before having to pause to collect himself. It’s a matter of justice, he said.

“We live right out in the richest ocean in the world practically, and we’re going to see this happen to us, in our own backyard? No! We’ll fight it!”

That fight continues. The council is expected to vote on halibut bycatch this weekend.

Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott speaks to the NPFMC on Wednesday in Sitka. Mallott told council members to “try to find ways to reach common ground — or water.” (State of Alaska photo/Barbara Blake)

Lt. Governor Byron Mallott urged participants to pursue the common good on behalf of Alaska, at one of the most polarized meetings of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in recent memory.

Mallott listened from the audience for the better part of the day on Wednesday (6-3-15), as council members read reports on issues surrounding federal fishing policy.

When he was invited forward to speak, however, the lt. governor chose to put a face on the debate.

“The mother of a child on St. Paul Island cares as much about her child as that of the woman who lives in Kodiak. They should have a powerful and compelling desire to work together.”

The most significant rancor at the council’s Sitka meeting has been over bycatch issues: How much halibut and salmon should the large-vessel trawl fleet be permitted to waste at the expense of the small-boat hook-and-line fisheries?

Lt. Gov. Mallott strongly recommended a holistic solution. This was his only direct reference to trawling in his 18-minute speech.

“We should not let the North Pacific Ocean be a place where so many different views are taken such that we are separated in our public policy decision-making, but to do it in a way that brings us together. And the trawler impacted by salmon ultimately affects the lives of folks on the Yukon River and even into Canada. That affects ultimately the biosphere in which we all live, which should be viewed as common. So that person on the Yukon who is as concerned about the king salmon as is a pollock trawler of the resource that he or she seeks, should find ways to come together.”

Lt. Gov. Mallott’s pitch for unity in federal fishery policy was delivered without the slightest hint of irony, even though state government has remained deadlocked for two months, and is poised to shut down on July 1.

His final suggestion to the council — to consider the interests of the public and move forward — might have been just as well-served to the legislature.

“If we do not do that, it ultimately becomes win-or-lose. And the worst kind of society that we can build in Alaska is one that is built along those lines.”

In addition to his role as lt. governor, Byron Mallott is Gov. Walker’s lead advisor on fisheries policy. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council meets through next Tuesday in Sitka.

The big, hot button item on the agenda is whether to limit halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea. Small fishermen up and down the coast are pushing to reduce the number of halibut taken and discarded by big boats targeting groundfish.

But the Council has several other issues on its plate.

That includes updates on the federal Observer Program, which places biologists on fishing vessels to monitor how much fish — and what kind — are caught. Two years ago, the program began placing observers on small boats, mostly in the longline halibut fleet. Small fishermen have protested that the extra person is a burden, and have asked for an electronic monitoring program, using cameras instead.

The Council will also decide on overfishing limits for three species of crab in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. And they will discuss a proposal to allow vessels fishing for golden king crab to offload parts of their catch in Adak, as part of an effort to sustain a live crab market there.

The Council itself will hold its first day of meetings Wednesday, June 3. It will begin by taking reports from staff and agencies. The Council is expected to take public comment on halibut bycatch late Wednesday or Thursday.

So far this week, two committees that advise the Council have been combing through reports on the various issues. The Scientific and Statistical Committee will meet through Wednesday. The Advisory Panel, made up of industry representatives, will meet through Saturday. That panel will take public comment on halibut bycatch Wednesday.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is meeting in Sitka’s Harrigan Centennial Hall through next Tuesday (6-9-15). There are opportunities for public comment throughout the week. You can find the council’s full agenda and schedule here, the livestream here, and instructions for those who wish to comment here.

Crewmen load halibut near Juneau. (Flickr photo/gillphoto)

Of the thirty million pounds of halibut caught last year in commercial fisheries statewide, nearly a third was thrown back into the ocean, dead.  It was netted accidentally by boats targeting other fish.

Now, that may change. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which oversees the federal waters off Alaska, is considering major new limits on wasted halibut — or bycatch — at its meeting in Sitka this week (week of 6-1-15).

The decision will have impacts from Southeast to the Bering Sea.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is meeting in Sitka’s Harrigan Centennial Hall through next Tuesday (6-9-15). There are opportunities for public comment throughout the week. You can find the council’s full agenda and schedule here, the  livestream here, and instructions for those who wish to comment here.

Downloadable audio

Critics argue that too many fish are dying in the nets of big Bering Sea trawlers — and that means less halibut for everyone else.

Linda Behnken is the executive director of ALFA, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, which represents mostly small-boat, hook-and-line commercial fishermen.

“Halibut’s one of the two most important species, along with salmon, to the coastal communities of Alaska,” she said. “The bycatch threatens all of that.”

Behnken calls the Bering Sea Alaska’s halibut “nursery ground.” Studies have found that young fish migrate from there into the Gulf of Alaska and Southeast.

And that means “what happens in the Bering Sea doesn’t stay in the Bering Sea,” Behnken said. “What happens in the Bering Sea, happens to all of us.”

When trawlers target flatfish like yellowfin sole, they drag their nets through the same deepwater habitat where halibut live — and invariably catch some. The law requires trawlers to discard that halibut, but most fish don’t make it back into the water alive. Last year alone, trawlers scooped up — and discarded — about five million pounds of halibut in the Bering Sea.

This has been the case as long as there’s been trawling. But the issue has become more urgent in recent years, as halibut abundance has dropped.

In the last ten years, the exploitable biomass – that is, the population of fish big enough to catch – has declined by half. And halibut fishermen have seen their catch limits drop with it. But the caps on bycatch have remained essentially the same.

In the Central Bering Sea, halibut fishermen initially faced a 60-percent cut in 2015. That cut was avoided, but only on the condition that bycatch in the region declines this year. The impacts would be huge, Behnken says.

“The Bering Sea communities, especially communities like St. Paul in the Pribilof Islands, they don’t have salmon,” she said. “They don’t have musk ox. They don’t have caribou. They don’t have moose. Halibut is the most important species for them for subsistence and for their commercial fisheries… They’re looking at something that, I think, threatens cultural extinction if they lose the halibut stock.”

ALFA has asked the Council to reduce the trawl bycatch cap by 50-percent.

Chris Woodley is head of the Groundfish Forum, which represents most of what’s called the “Amendment 80” fleet. That fleet is made up of six companies, most based in Seattle, with about 18 catcher-processors targeting flatfish in the Bering Sea.

“A 50-percent bycatch reduction would be absolutely devastating to the Amendment 80 sector,” he said. “Essentially our boats would be tying up five to six months early. And it would also have significant downstream impacts to the maritime economies of remote communities in Alaska, primarily Unalaska, Adak, Kodiak and Sand Point.”

Woodley said the fleet has already made voluntary efforts to reduce bycatch. And they’re asking the Council to let them adopt other measures, like deck sorting, which would allow them to return more halibut to the water alive.

“There may be some more things that we can do. But all of that comes at a cost,” he said. “And we’re concerned that people don’t appreciate that we’ve already made significant improvements, and it’s not so simple as just flipping a switch and everything gets better. Any additional improvements are going to have potentially huge costs to our fleet.”

For Behnken, the big issue is what kind of fisheries Alaska wants. The state’s commercial halibut fleet is made up of about a thousand small boats, most of them family-owned, in communities up and down the coast.

“I would say the way fisheries are changing, it’s the way our country’s changing. It’s what small farmers have faced. It’s the industrialization of the food system,” she said. “To me, this decision the council is facing, it’s really a landmark decision. They are deciding between a fishery that has a hundred-year tradition of being commercially exploited by small boats — community based, this is a really important fishery to Alaska — and this fish being taken as bycatch, wasted in the industrial, Seattle-based fleet.”

But whether the Council sees it that way is up in the air. The Council is expected to vote on bycatch caps this weekend.