ADF&G RELEASES SECOND DISASTER RELIEF DRAFT SPEND PLAN WITH
CHANGES TO ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA AND PAYMENT TIERS
On November 9, 2020, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) released
its second “Section 12005 CARES Act Relief for Fisheries Participants Second Draft
Spend Plan” which will distribute $49 million in fisheries disaster relief funds to
eligible participants from the commercial fishing, seafood processing, charter fishing,
aquaculture and subsistence sectors. ADF&G’s second draft spend plan allocates
over a quarter of the funds – 27 percent - to the charter sector. Commercial fishing
vessel owners who are not processors will receive 35 percent of the allocation.
Seafood processors, including numerous commercial fishing vessels that freeze,
participate in dive fisheries or direct market their catch, will receive 32 percent of the
disaster relief funds.
The second draft spend plan makes some changes to the October draft spend plan
which include an extended time period for calculating revenue declines, eligibility for
a small number of commercial fishermen who reside in states outside of Alaska, and
changes to the tiered payment system. Eligible commercial fishermen must have one
of the following permits or licenses: (1) a 2020 CFEC commercial vessel license; (2) a
2020 CFEC Commercial fishing permit; (3) a 2020 NOAA Fisheries License Limitation
Permit; (4) a 2020 NOAA fisheries IFQ permit and/or (5) NOAA fisheries crab
rationalization IFQ permit. Eligible applicants will receive 1 share per permit.
Payment amounts are unknown until all applications are received and the total
number of shares counted to determine the value of a single share.
Eligible applicants must have fished in 2018 and 2019 and must certify that they
have experience a greater than 35% loss in fishery revenue from January 1, 2020 to
November 30, 2020 as a direct or indirect result of COVID-19 relative to average
gross fishing revenue the past five years for same time period. Those applicants who
did not fish all five years can use average gross revenue for their years in operation.
Applicants must also certify that if they received other pandemic related aid,
including unemployment, grants, or loans that won’t be repaid, the sum of fishery
revenue + pandemic aid (not including loans to be repaid) must not exceed average
annual revenue from 2015 to 2019. Self-certification will be sufficient to verify the
losses, but applicants must attest that they have and will retain records documenting
the losses.
One of the changes to eligibility requirements is that commercial fishermen who are
residents of other states may apply, but only if they have a business license issued by
Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. It is
unclear if this change will help non-resident commercial fishermen. In June, the
state of Alaska excluded most commercial fishermen from the Alaska Cares Act
grant program by requiring a state business license. Alaska exempts most
commercial fisheries businesses from the state business license requirement. As a
result, most commercial fishermen were not eligible for the AK CARES grants until
the state expanded program eligibility in August.
Many commercial fishermen, including freezer vessels, many dive operations, direct
marketers and some tender vessels will apply for relief funds allocated to the
processing sector. Processors must hold a 2020 processing permit issued by Alaska
Department of Environmental Conservation and processing vessels must be
homeported in AK. Eligible processors must have a minimum average annual
wholesale value revenue of $30,000 from 2015-2019. The spend plan establishes
seven tiers based on average wholesale revenues to determine payment amounts.
For example, processors with revenues between $30,000 and $75,000 receive one
share, and processors with revenues between $75,000 and $500,000 receive 2
shares. At the top end of the scale, processors with larger revenues of between $20
million and $50 million would receive 6 shares, and processors with revenues above
$50 million would receive 7 shares.
The second draft plan is available at:
https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/home/news/hottopics/pdfs/cares_act_spending
plan_110920.pdf
ADF&G is allowing a public comment period through 5:00 p.m. November 15, 2020.
Fishermen can send comments to dfg.com.caresact@alasak.gov.