Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association Archives

My Turn: Charting a course toward seafood independence for Alaska’s vulnerable food systems

November 8, 2024 — As a commercial fisherman based in Sitka and the executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA), I’ve spent decades navigating Alaska’s challenging waters and the headwinds facing our fishing communities. Alaska’s coastal residents are resilient, but they are up against a new magnitude of challenges. The loss of fishing access and community-based processing capacity, along with a dearth of local markets for seafood, are straining once vibrant fishing economies up and down our coastline.

I recently contributed to a fisheries access report commissioned by the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT), which highlights the outmigration of fishing access in Southeast Alaska. Communities with historically robust local fishing fleets now see few active vessels based in town. This trend is acute in communities such as Kake, which has lost its local processor — and with it, a viable market for resident fishermen. Through interviews and in-person engagement, ASFT’s report found that a common concern among fishermen was the loss of a local fish buyer. When this happens, resident fishermen often sell their permits or abandon fishing altogether. The double blow of losing a local buyer and having to relinquish fishing rights has driven many families away from long-standing communities and hometowns, resulting in the closure of schools and businesses, weakening the viability of fishing as a way of life.

Right now our fishing communities need federal support to pursue economic resilience and seafood independence. That’s why I’m grateful to Rep. Mary Peltola for introducing the Domestic Seafood Production Act (DSPA), alongside Reps. Troy Carter (D-LA) and Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR). By investing $90 million, DSPA will help stem the loss of fishery access, support the development of localized markets, secure coastal fishing livelihoods, and ultimately foster prosperous fishing communities.

Read the full article at Juneau Empire

ALASKA: Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust Host Spring Fishermen’s Expo

April 4, 2023 — The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) are hosting a Spring Virtual Fishermen’s EXPO on April 4 and 5, from 9AM-1PM to provide educational workshops to new and experienced local fishermen. ALFA and ASFT welcome those interested in the fishing sector to attend.

Read the full article at National Fisherman

ALASKA: Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust host Spring Virtual Fishermen’s EXPO

March 28, 2023 — The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) are hosting a Spring Virtual Fishermen’s EXPO on April 4 and 5, from 9AM-1PM to provide educational workshops and training to new and experienced local fishermen as well as others with interest in the fishing sector. During this EXPO all the workshops and presentations will be offered in a virtual format.

The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) are hosting a Spring Virtual Fishermen’s EXPO on April 4 and 5, from 9AM-1PM to provide educational workshops and training to new and experienced local fishermen as well as others with interest in the fishing sector. During this EXPO all the workshops and presentations will be offered in a virtual format.

Read the full article at KINY

Stakeholders worry after profanity prompts federal fisheries council to tighten comment policies

May 6, 2021 — For all the controversy and high-strung emotion that can accompany fisheries decision-making bodies, the federal council that manages fisheries in the North Pacific says it hadn’t ever received public comments with explicit language… until last month.

North Pacific Fishery Management Council members like Bill Twiet said at the council’s April meeting they worried that crude language and personal attacks could prevent people from speaking up.

“We lose collectively — the council loses, but also the council family loses — when people choose not to engage with us because they look at some of that testimony and they think ‘If that’s the cost of speaking up, I don’t want to,’” Tweit explained.

Council members say five of the nearly 600 comments submitted to the council last month contained vulgar language or personal attacks. The council’s executive director says his staff reached out to the commenters and asked them to resubmit, sans swearing. One did.

But those five comments were apparently enough to prompt changes to the council’s written comment policies. That includes a profanity filter, tighter deadlines for submitting comments and some discretionary power for Council staff to move — or remove — off-topic comments.

And that’s prompted outcry from longtime fisheries advocates. The head of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association Linda Behnken says she’s never seen the council move like that: “I mean, never seen them bring something up, take action, boom, done without more opportunity for meaningful engagement.”

Read the full story at KSTK

Congress approves bill to train prospective fishermen

December 23, 2020 — A bill to establish the nation’s first ever federal program to train prospective commercial fishermen has passed Congress and awaits approval by the White House.

The Young Fishermen’s Development Act was passed unanimously by both the U.S. House and Senate, the Sitka Sentinel reported Monday. The law would provide grants to foster the growth of budding fishermen across the country.

The bill introduced by Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan in 2019 had bipartisan support, with co-sponsors that included Democratic U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward Markey, both of Massachusetts.

Read the full story at the Associated Press

Electronic monitoring grants will benefit Alaska fisheries

November 30, 2020 — Two Alaska fisheries are among the beneficiaries of new national grants to modernize data management systems to ensure sustainable fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska, Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands through electronic monitoring.

One grant for $185,104 went to the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association which matched those funds with another $213,500, for a total of $398,604.

The other, for $908,862, went to United Catcher Boats in Seattle, which added $1,385,854, for a total of $2,294,716.

ALFA will use its share to develop lower cost electronic monitoring hardware, test automated real-time feedback to vessels on image quality and support stakeholder engagement in fisheries management forums relevant to electronic monitoring in the Alaska fixed gear fishery. The project will also explore ways to improve image quality and cost effectiveness of electronic monitoring through the development of new electronic monitoring systems and deployment methods, ALFA officials said,

UBC will focus on scaling up existing efforts to evaluate the feasibility and cost efficiency of using electronic monitoring systems on Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska Pollock pelagic trawl catcher vessels to monitor compliance with retention regulations. The project will demonstrate the feasibility of electronic monitoring at scale and improve data quality, timeliness and cost-efficiency for salmon bycatch accounting and detecting and quantifying groundfish discards, according to UBC.

Read the full story at The Cordova Times

In a down market, Alaska fishermen avert disaster by feeding families in need

October 2, 2020 — It’s been a hard season for small fishermen in many parts of Alaska because of economic losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. But a seafood donation program started by a Sitka organization is helping bring some stability to fishermen and consumers during an uncertain time.

“I very quickly heard about people who were struggling here in town and that catalyzed us to start talking to local fishermen, local processors, about how we as commercial fishermen could help meet that local need,” Behnken said.

Normally, ALFA is a membership organization that advocates for sustainable fisheries and small fishermen. They also run Alaskans Own, a community supported fishery that sells seafood boxes to people around the country.

But Behnken and her partners decided to branch out to meet the local need brought on by the pandemic. They used grant funds from Catch Together to supplement the price of lingcod, so Sitka fishermen like Foss and her husband could start their season with some security. Then, they created a market for the seafood by delivering it to families who were struggling to make ends meet because of the pandemic.

“The pandemic really created a lot of need around Alaska and around the country from loss of jobs,” she said. “It’s just a particularly difficult time for people and then to be able to have really good quality food coming from Alaska’s healthy oceans. It’s just a really special to be able to provide that and make those connections.”

Soon, Behnken started getting calls from other communities asking her to expand. With the help of outside funders and organizations, they delivered seafood to military families in Alaska and to Tribal communities in the Pacific Northwest. Justin Zuelner is the head of The Wave, the foundation that helped distribute the seafood in the Pacific Northwest.

Read the full story at Raven Radio

Fishermen, farmers suffering from food supply disruptions concerned for what’s to come

May 6, 2020 — Numerous meat processing plants have closed, leaving ranchers with nowhere to bring their livestock and fearing that the animals may be sold at drastically reduced prices or euthanized. A surplus in dairy and vegetables has forced farmers to dump their milk and throw out or plow under their crops. Fishermen catching sablefish, halibut and black cod are now left without restaurants — their biggest market — to buy their food, as others waiting to catch king salmon and albacore wonder whether it’s even worth going out to fish when the season opens in July.

In Sitka, Alaska, it’s the height of the longline fishing season for halibut and black cod, and Linda Behken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, has been working hard to keep her members informed on the latest regarding COVID-19.

“I would say it’s about the most exhausting month I’ve ever been through since I’ve been running [the association],” said Behnken, whose organization represents about 130 vessel owners. “Just the worry about our fleet immediately and in the long-term.”

Behnken says prices for halibut and black cod have already dropped 60% relative to recent years in large part because restaurants have closed. She expects similar price drops in king salmon when that season opens in a limited capacity in July.

“Most Americans eat their seafood at restaurants, and with restaurants closed, that higher volume, higher quality product is where we really lost markets. So the impact to the fishermen has been really significant,” Behnken said.

Behnken said a lot of people are fishing anyway, “hoping that prices will improve.”

For some fishermen, however, the risk of losing money is too high. California’s commercial salmon season began on Friday, but Mike Conroy, executive director of the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, says that with the markets “upended” and 75% of California salmon purchased by restaurants, many fishermen might not go through the trouble of fishing.

Read the full story at ABC News

Southeast Alaska fishermen’s group works to feed families affected by COVID-19

April 16, 2020 — With thousands of Alaskans out of work because of coronavirus mandates and other economic effects, fishermen and processors in Southeast Alaska are working to ensure families in need have access to food.

One of those groups, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, is partnering with processors in Sitka to distribute five-pound packages of fish to families in Sitka. The families in need have been identified through the town’s mutual aid program.

“Within a week or two of the shelter-in-place and a lot of the businesses closing down, hearing that the grocery store here was not accepting checks anymore because too many of them were bouncing, to me was a pretty clear sign that people are feeling that stress,” said Linda Behnken, Executive Director of ALFA. “Since we are probably closer to the whole economic impacts of this pandemic than the end, we started thinking about what we could do and talking to the processors here in Sitka, and right away heard from fishermen that where they can they’re willing to donate fish to help to get to families in need.”

Behnken said the processors then also jumped on boarding, saying they’d help get the fish to families as long as someone could distribute it. Anyone else who want to support the effort can help cover the costs by purchasing donation boxes through ALFA’s community-supported fishery program, Alaskans Own.

Read the full story at KTUU

Alaska fishermen push for changes to how managers deal with bycatch

October 9, 2019 — Halibut catches fluctuate based on the ups and downs of the stock from California to the farthest reaches of the Bering Sea. If the numbers decline, so do the catches of commercial and sport fishermen.

But similar reductions don’t apply to the boats taking millions of pounds of halibut as bycatch in other fisheries.

In the Bering Sea, for example, there is a fixed cap totaling 7.73 million pounds of halibut allowed to be taken as bycatch for trawlers, longliners and pot boats targeting groundfish, with most going to trawlers. The cap stays the same, regardless of changes in the halibut stock. Much of the bycatch gets tossed over the side, dead or alive, as required by federal law.

Stakeholders are saying it is time for that to change.

This month, after four years of analyses and deliberation, managers are moving toward a new “abundance based” management plan that would tie bycatch levels to the health of the halibut stock as determined by annual surveys.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News