A nearly $1.7 billion appropriations bill passed by Congress this past week includes millions of dollars in funds for fisheries, covering everything from fisheries disaster aid, research and recovery programs that will benefit Alaska’s commercial and sport fishing industries.
Rep. Mary Peltola, D-Alaska, hailed the package — pushed through on Friday Dec. 23 to avoid a government shutdown and keep the federal government funded — as a bill that “delivers for working families and invests in communities across Alaska. This agreement will keep the federal government open and working for the people while delivering historic funds to build a healthier, more just, more prosperous future for Alaska,” she said.
The package includes an Alaska Salmon Research Task Force to review existing Pacific salmon research in Alaska, identify applied research needed to better understand the increased variability and declining salmon returns in certain areas, and support sustainable salmon runs to the state. The task force will be appointed by the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the governor of Alaska.
Task Force membership is to include representatives from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC), Pacific Salmon Commission (PSC), at least two members representing Alaska Natives who have personal knowledge and direct experience with subsistence practices, and fisheries industry representatives knowledgeable about subjects including harvesting, prohibited species catch (bycatch) and hatcheries.
The task force must conduct a review of Pacific salmon science relevant to understanding salmon returns in Alaska, including everything from life cycle and stage-specific mortality to predator/prey international relationships between salmon and marine mammals and other predators.
The bills include an additional $300 million for fisheries disaster assistance across the country, funds to allow halibut sportfishing charter vessels to contribute to the purchase of commercial halibut quota shares, and $65 million for expenses associated with restoration of Pacific salmon populations. The last item would allow the Secretary of Commerce to issue grants to the states of Alaska, California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Washington and federally recognized tribes for conservation of salmon and steelhead trout populations listed as threatened or endangered, or that are identified by a state as at-risk to be so listed. The grants would support the exercise of tribal treaty fishing rights or Native subsistence fishing to help with the conservation of Pacific coastal salmon and steelhead habitat, based on guidelines to be developed by the Secretary of Commerce.
