August 22, 2013 — During his third stop in a series of meetings on the re-authorization of the federal marine fisheries management act, U.S. Senator Mark Begich, D-Alaska, spoke about Alaskans being unified in their approach when negotiating at the federal level.
Nearly 30 people attended the third of Begich’s listening sessions in Kenai; He has also held meetings with the subsistence community in Fairbanks and commercial fishermen in Kodiak.
The sessions revolve around the re-authorization of the Magnuson-Stevens act, a federal law that covers marine fisheries in the U.S. and is now being reworked for the first time in nearly a decade.
The senator, who chairs the Senate Subcommittee on Oceans, Atmosphere and Fisheries and is spearheading the re-authorization, has seen several of the same issues surface during his tours of Alaskan communities including by-catch, changes in ocean temperature; however Cook Inlet fishermen also emphasized the importance of genetic testing and the expense of having observers on commercial fishing vessels.
“We’re now in a position where we can announce, 36 hours after a commercial opening, what happened; what we have harvested,” said Paul Dale, a representative from the Alaska Salmon Alliance. “We’re able to use that information to make better management decisions in time to really help us all.”
Read the full story at the Peninsula Clarion