July 30, 2020 โ Before this yearโs salmon season, federal disaster funding was mostly unavailable to small-boat fishing businesses. Then, Congress amended the Paycheck Protection Program at the beginning of July so that fishermen could apply. A little later, it extended the programโs application deadline until August 8.
That was a big relief for many fishermen in Alaska.
โMy family and I are salmon fishermen,โ said Jamie OโConnor, a Bristol Bay set-netter who fishes in Ekuk and serves as the Working Waterfronts director for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council. โIt was really difficult for us to quantify our impacts before our season had happened, so we were really happy to see that there had been an extension and some alterations to the program to allow us to participate.โ
At the peak of this yearโs sockeye run, OโConnorโs processor put the fleet on limits โ the company, and many others in Bristol Bay, told fishermen not to fish due to freezer and capacity issues.
โWe missed probably half to a third of our season in those three days,โ OโConnor said. โIt was a hard thing to sit through, especially with all of the effort that went into preparing for this season. To have done more on the front end to make sure we could do this safely and then just sit out the run was crushing.โ