Thank you, Chairman McDonald and members of the committee, for the invitation to address you today.
My name is Rachel Donkersloot, and I currently serve as director of the working waterfronts program for the Alaska Marine Conservation Council. I am joining you today from Anchorage, Alaska, where I work on issues related to marine resource governance, rural and small-scale fisheries access, and coastal community sustainability and well-being.
Much of what I share with you today is described in more detail in the recently published report, “Turning the Tide: How can Alaska address the graying of the fleet and loss of rural fisheries access?” This report is the product of a three-year ethnographic project focusing on the graying of the fleet in Alaska fisheries.
Alaska is known globally as a leader in sustainable fisheries management, but Alaska fisheries and communities are not immune to the consequences of privatizing fisheries access. The now predictable outcomes of transforming the right to fish into individualized, tradable commodities are well documented in the North Pacific and include the systematic displacement and disproportionate negative impact on rural, small-scale and indigenous fishermen and communities, as well as young fishermen and new entrants.
For example, since limited entry programs were implemented in state commercial fisheries in Alaska, permit holdings by rural residents local to their fisheries have declined by 30%. ln federal fisheries managed under individual fishing quotas, IFQs, the trend is similar, with small rural communities in the Gulf of Alaska experiencing an over 50% decline in IFQ holdings.
Of the permits that do remain in rural Alaska, increasingly older fishermen hold them. The average fisherman in 2018 was over 50 years old, a decade older than the average fisherman of a generation ago.
This “graying of the fleet”, and loss of local access to commercial fisheries in Alaska, threatens the healthy succession of fishing as an economic and cultural mainstay in coastal communities, and creates a clear public policy concern.
A range of programs and policy provisions have been created in Alaska to address this crisis of social sustainability. Some of these programs have been more impactful than others in meeting their objectives.
What's working in Alaska? Perhaps the single most significant and supported element of state-managed fisheries in Alaska is the owner-on-board, or “boots-on-deck”, provision. Regulations require that limited entry permits can only be held by persons, as opposed to corporations or other entities. Leasing of permits is prohibited except in cases of medical or other emergency. This provision has ensured that the benefits wrought from state fisheries flow to and through working fishermen and fishing families.
ln federal fisheries, impactful programs include quota set-asides, such as the jig sector set-aside in the Gulf of Alaska. The jig fishery serves as a true entry-level opportunity in an industry marked by significant, sometimes impassable, barriers related to the high cost of entry.
The well-known community development quota, CDQ, program is another example in place in western Alaska. The CDQ program was created in 1992 as part of the rationalization of the Bering Sea pollock fishery. The program allocates a portion of all Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands quotas for groundfish, halibut and crab to CDQ entities, which use these royalties to advance regional economic development through investments in local industry, ownership of offshore vessels, infrastructure and education.
The halibut and sablefish IFQ fisheries include numerous provisions intended to protect small-scale opportunity and the owner-operator nature of the fishery. These include caps on the amount of quota a vessel can land and a person can hold, restrictions on who can receive quota—largely IFQ crew members—and a prohibition on leasing and the use of hired masters. Another key feature is the creation of quota share classes based on vessel size. Quota shares are divided into classes based on vessel length, and larger vessels are prohibited from purchasing or fishing quota shares designated for smaller vessels.
This has helped to ensure small-scale participation in the fishery, but has been unsuccessful in ensuring that fishing opportunity remains in rural and indigenous place-based communities that have been disproportionately affected by the historic outflow of fishing rights. A program implemented in 2005 designed to address inequities contributing to this outflow has been largely unsuccessful in bringing back opportunities for village fisheries. This is due largely to the high cost of halibut quota shares today.
The State of Alaska and other regional organizations have also created a number of financing tools, loan programs and educational and apprenticeship programs to support Alaska fishermen, which are also outlined in the full report.
Other fishing regions and nations have developed programs and mechanisms to address problems of lost fishing opportunity related to the transferability and privatization of fishing rights.
Largely, programs have been amended to include provisions to recreate opportunity for small-scale fishermen, rural communities, indigenous peoples, and youth and future generations.
Some examples of these types of program include small-scale fishery provisions, such as Norway's open group fishery, which targets small-scale fishermen who did not qualify for individual vessel quotas, and Iceland's coastal or quota-free fishery, which allows for limited harvesting opportunities without purchasing individual transferable quotas, ITQs.
Provisions for rural communities include Maine's island limited entry program as well as eastern Canada's adjacency to the resource principle.
Provisions to protect indigenous access include an annual set-aside for Sami regions in Norway. These provisions favour small-scale fishermen and have catalyzed the revival of some fjord fisheries since 2010.
Norway's recruitment quota program also offers an example of provisions specifically designed to support young fishermen. The program allows fishermen under the age of 30 to apply for recruitment quota at no cost. Recruitment quota cannot be sold and helps to facilitate new entry into Norway's closed fisheries. The program has been well received by young fishermen wanting to enter the industry.
Other amendments to quota and permanent programs around the globe are outlined in our report.
In closing, it's important to note that, though in many ways Alaska has been in the forefront in working to balance multiple fishery management objectives and interests, especially maintaining owner-on-board fisheries, work remains if we are to meaningfully address declines in intergenerational and rural fisheries access. Provisions highlighted here are the product of clear policy choices, each with identified intent. I hope that the north Pacific continues to serve as a leader in developing policies and provisions that ensure equitable and sustainable fisheries for current and future generations, and I applaud your work toward this end here today.
In closing, I will mention that the full “Turning the Tide” report is available on our project website, at fishermen.alaska.edu, along with other project findings and papers. I thank the committee for its time today, and I'm happy to answer any questions.