Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust Awarded $475,000 From the Rasmuson Foundation

December 2, 2022

The Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) is thrilled to announce a $475,000 award from the Rasmuson Foundation to promote rural and indigenous access to Alaska’s coastal fisheries.

With support from the Rasmuson Foundation, the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust will establish a quota bank to anchor fisheries access in Alaska’s rural and indigenous communities. Working with both Tribal and non-Tribal partners, ASFT will provide entry level opportunity while also partnering with coastal communities to address existing barriers to fisheries participation.

“Over the past 20 years, rural and especially indigenous communities have steadily lost access to Alaska’s fisheries, a loss that has eliminated commercial fishing from some communities and reduced subsistence access and food security across the State,” commented Linda Behnken, ASFT acting director. “With support from Catch Together and now the Rasmuson Foundation, we are building a quota bank that will allow community partners to reverse that trend. We are deeply grateful to the Rasmuson Foundation for this significant investment in our work and mission.”

The Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust works to promote sustainable fisheries through research, education, and economic opportunity. ASFT programming includes: SeaBank, a multidisciplinary initiative to identify, assess, and communicate the economic value of the Southeast Alaska ecosystem; Local Fish Fund, an innovative fishery access loan program launched in collaboration with The Nature Conservancy, Catch Together, and Craft3; and Fish For Families, a seafood donation program operated in partnership with the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association that has distributed over 645,000 seafood meals to families in need.

“Fishing is fundamental to life in coastal Alaska,” noted Liberty Siegle, Local Fish Fund program director. “Without access to fishing, both culture and community health are at risk. With this generous award we will work with our Alaska partners to strengthen access and this essential connection to fisheries.”

These funds are part of a larger effort by the Rasmuson Foundation to invest in Alaska communities. As president and CEO Diane Kaplain recognizes, “Alaska’s nonprofits, Tribes, and local governments work hard every day to help their neighbors and make life better in immeasurable ways” - and the $500 million Rasmuson has given to such groups since the foundation’s inception prove their commitment to supporting Alaska.

White Paper on Orca, Chinook, and Troll Fishery

ALFA and Alaska Trollers Association White Paper on Orca, Chinook, and Troll Fishery

Executive Summary

The following report prepared by the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association (ALFA) and the Alaska Trollers Association (ATA) addresses factors that affect the Southern Resident orca and responds to the campaign waged by the Wild Fish Conservancy, a Washington State organization, to link orca decline to the Southeast Alaska troll fishery. This report is based on extensive review of the research, data, and published literature.

Pollution, industrial toxins, urbanization, habitat loss and human-caused disturbance are the primary factors limiting the recovery of the Southern Resident orcas. Any one factor – acoustic disturbances from vessel traffic, the orca observing industry, chemical contaminants, or habitat harms specific to Chinook, chum and coho salmon – may in itself be a significant cause of nutritional stress, higher death rates or failed pregnancies. In short, Southern Resident orcas are threatened primarily because of their prolonged residence each year in Puget Sound and inland Southern British Columbia waters, all areas that are heavily used and contaminated by a growing human population.

ALFA and ATA are Southeast Alaska-based commercial fishing organizations that represent community-based, small commercial fishing businesses. Their members support science-based fisheries management and work to safeguard the health of the marine and freshwater environments that support salmon and other marine life. ALFA markets wild, sustainably caught Alaska seafood under the Alaskans Own label throughout Alaska and the U.S. to fund its Seafood Donation Program and Fishery Conservation Network. Alaskans Own is a leader in the sustainable seafood movement and has helped address food insecurity issues throughout Alaska and the Northwest, delivering more than 640,000 donated Alaska seafood meals in 2020-2021.

Chinook salmon produced by Southeast Alaska’s troll fishery are the culinary world's salmon of choice, prized for their color, high oil content, firm texture, and succulent flesh. Trollers fish with hook and line gear on the open ocean and target individual adult salmon when they are "bright," or at their peak quality. Careful individual handling helps maintain this quality. No fish is treated with more care from the time it leaves the water until it arrives on a plate.

Troll fishery harvests are managed under the Pacific Salmon Treaty using annual catch limits based on the aggregate abundance of mixed, multiple Chinook stocks that feed in the Gulf of Alaska. Treaty harvest regimes are abundance-based and designed to be sustainable. Each year fishery managers develop annual abundance indices that respond to changes in stock productivity to meet biologically based escapement goals and exploitation rate objectives.

Fishery managers have been successful at keeping catches below pre-season catch limits, consistent with Treaty obligations. Each year there is a post-season analysis of the fisheries and re-evaluation of harvest objectives. The Alaska troll fishery is one of the most carefully monitored fisheries in the world, with in season reporting and extensive dockside sampling. This management system ensures compliance with major seafood sustainability standards that require the harvest of sustainable fish stocks, minimal environmental impact on the marine ecosystem biodiversity, and an effective management system capable of responding quickly to environmental changes.

The Wild Fish Conservancy seeks to eliminate Southeast Alaska's troll fishery - a fleet of small fishing vessels operated by independent fishing families. Although there are many conservation groups concerned about orcas, the Wild Fish Conservancy acted alone to sue NMFS two years ago as part of its effort to eliminate the troll fishery. The court narrowly ruled NMFS needed to revise an incomplete plan to increase hatchery Chinook production that would provide additional prey for Southern Resident orcas.

The Wild Fish Conservancy is now misusing the court's decision in its campaign by targeting retailers, restaurants and seafood sustainability certifiers with misleading media materials that falsely fault a small and distant salmon fishery for the decline of the Southern Resident orca population. Their theory is that Southeast Alaska troll fishery catches of Chinook salmon are the primary cause of downward population trends for the Southern Resident orcas. This theory ignores a massive body of literature detailing the role of habitat degradation and human pressure on orca population viability. The theory also ignores decades of harvest and stock composition data establishing that the troll fishery's impact on coastwide Chinook abundance is small and more importantly, its impact on stocks of importance to the Southern Resident orcas is low.

Southern Resident orcas move through the Salish Sea (Puget Sound and southern British Columbia inland marine waters) and outer Washington coast during May through October in pursuit of Chinook, coho, and chum salmon. After October they move to the outer coasts of Washington and southern Vancouver Island and forage for Chinook and groundfish such as ling cod, dover sole and halibut. By March and April, they frequent areas near the mouth of the Columbia River, which is the peak return time for Columbia River Spring Chinook.

There is a massive body of research investigating the decline of the Southern Resident orca. The causes are simple but multiple, with current research focused on habitat loss, vessel traffic and contaminants. Salmon abundance has varied considerably over the past 40 years, and it is either a non-factor or the least significant factor affecting longterm trends for Southern Resident orca population.

Click Here to Read the Entire Report

Did climate change really kill billions of snow crabs in Alaska?

MONGABAY

Did climate change really kill billions of snow crabs in Alaska?

by Elizabeth Claire Alberts on 7 November 2022

• In October 2022, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the lucrative snow crab fishery in the Bering Sea would close for the first time, following a population decline of 80% between 2018 and 2022.

• While fisheries managers and biologists say climate change is to blame for the species’ retreat, some fishers and crab experts suggest that trawling bycatch and other fishing activity may have played a role in the snow crab’s decline.

• The fishery’s closure has amplified a chorus of concerns about Alaska’s trawling industry and the knowledge gaps around its potential impact on fisheries.

  Read here

North Pacific climate change peril

November 18, 2022

North Pacific climate change peril

Kirk Moore

The stunning collapse of Bering Sea crab is an extreme example of climate change dangers already underway in other fisheries – and should shape how scientists, managers and fishermen plan to respond, panelists said at Pacific Marine Expo.

“The crabbers here did not ask to be the poster children for climate change, but that is the role that has befallen them,” said Sarah Schumann, coordinator of the advocacy campaign Fishery Friendly Climate Action. “The signal is unmistakeable” from climate shifts in other U.S. fisheries as well, she said.

https://www.nationalfisherman.com/alaska/north-pacific-climate-change-peril

Grant Aids Project to Fish on Kilowatts

Tuesday, 27 September 2022 23:31

By GARLAND KENNEDY

Sentinel Staff Writer

As part of an effort to push Sitka’s fishing fleet away from carbon-emitting propulsion, a Sitka troller has received a $40,000 grant to add electric power to augment the diesel power of his classic wooden boat.

The award came through the Sitka-based Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, one of three organizations chosen by the New York-based Acme Smoked Fish Corp. for grants to mitigate the effect of climate change. The other two projects are in Maine.

Eric Jordan said his goal is to reduce his boat’s fuel consumption and carbon signature. And he’s far from alone in his project to decarbonize. He’s worked alongside ALFA and Executive Director Linda Behnken to secure technical assistance and funding.

The F/V I Gotta is pictured this afternoon at ANB Harbor. A $40,000 grant will pay for an electric motor to be installed onboard the troller in order to cut carbon emissions. (Sentinel Photo)

Reducing his boat’s emissions is in line with other climate-friendly actions Jordan has taken – he drives an electric car and heats his home by heat pump rather than oil or gas.

Behnken said cutting the fishing fleet’s carbon emissions has been a long-term goal for ALFA.

“We started in a partnership with the Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation to understand fuel usage by the fleet and help the fleet understand ways to reduce fuel consumption, increase fuel efficiency through operational changes, as well as structural changes to the boat. And if they made changes, what kind of returns they could find,” Behnken told the Sentinel.

Using technical advice from the Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project under the U.S. Energy Department, ALFA has received technical assistance on the matter.

“We wanted to go the next step of looking at hybrid or zero-emission propulsion for the fleet, and that led us to the ETIPP award to work with the National Renewable Energy Labs to refine our ideas of what next steps should be,” Behnken said. “And we tested – with one boat this summer – electric fishing deck gear that was a way to reduce the electrical needs once we switch propulsion on that boat, and then this winter, we will be switching (Jordan’s) boat to actual hybrid propulsion.”

The diesel engines that have propelled fishing boats for a century operate most efficiently at specific speeds, she noted, but are less than ideal when trolling at low speeds.

Jordan told the Sentinel that fuel efficiency is already a priority in his commercial fishing.

“This year so far – and my wife just did the calculations – I burned 1,133 gallons (of diesel), which is about as fuel efficient as you can get in a troll operation,” Jordan said Monday. “A couple of things led to that: we had good salmon fishing close to town early in the season. And then we had chum show up in the middle of July. So I was targeting chum for the rest of the season. So that’s probably about as fuel efficient (as possible) for the kind of troll production I have.”

Jordan is not the first Sitkan to experiment with electric propulsion on a fishing vessel.

In 2020 Fabian Grutter converted his longliner, the F/V Sunbeam, to hybrid propulsion, but technical issues and a fire have delayed his project. Jordan and Grutter have discussed their projects with each other, Jordan said.

Acme Smoked Fish Corp., the largest smoked fish purveyor in the country, made its grants as part of its Seafood Industry Climate Award this month. The other recipients are the Aroostook Band of Mi’kmacs and Luke’s Seafood, both in Maine.

“Acme’s awards program looks to support innovation that will mitigate the impacts of climate change, while featuring the work of under-represented groups. In addition to funding, award recipients will have opportunities to work with leaders at Acme Smoked Fish Corp,” Acme says on the website.

In Sitka, Behnken explained to the Sentinel the challenges of the project.

“The engines that are in most of our fleet operate inefficiently at very low speeds, and inefficiently also at very high speeds,” she said. “And somewhere in between, we hit a sort of peak efficiency. So at low speeds – which is what we’re operating at most days – because when we’re trolling or hauling longline gear or running a gill net or seining, you’re mostly idling your engine. And they’re super inefficient at those low speeds. Likewise, when you’re running hard, you’re burning more fuel.”

Because of this, Behnken says the goal is to power Jordan’s boat electrically when he’s trolling, then swap over to the diesel when moving to and from the fishing grounds. The diesel main can charge the battery bank, too. 

“With a low-idle operation system, there’s a lot of fuel savings. So electric engines, electric motors while you’re trolling, while you’re longlining, while you are gillnetting really can save a lot of fuel, and then switching to your diesel engine when you need to charge,” she said.

In Jordan’s case, Behnken estimated that he could cut his fuel consumption by as much as 80 percent by installing a hybrid propulsion system. This reduction is possible in large part, she added, because Jordan doesn’t make long, multi-day fishing trips. Instead, each night he returns to town, where he can recharge batteries at the dock instead of burning diesel to charge at sea.

“Eric’s operation is well suited to hybrid(ization) where you have a clean energy alternative at the dock when you come into town,” she said.

But there’s a hangup – the batteries and propulsion unit cost $94,000 before installation costs are added on.

“That’s where we’ve been stuck, it’s just so expensive to do some of these first conversions. We’re looking at full conversion for the longer term, going to ammonia or hydrogen or fuel cells for the longer term. Carbon-zero sort of boats,” Behnken said.

Jordan highlighted the cost of the conversion, too, and was thankful for Behnken’s ability to secure funds.

“The honest truth is that it isn’t cost efficient without some kind of grants or funding from various sources, which Linda is just brilliant about finding,” Jordan said. “So right now, both her and her husband and I are looking at converting to some kind of hybrid diesel-electric.”

All told, he said, he expects the project to cost about $150,000 when the cost of installation is factored in. His troller, the F/V I Gotta, is valued at about $150,000.

While he doesn’t expect the project to pay for itself, Jordan thinks hybrid propulsion will save a significant amount of fuel.

“I’m looking to save about half or more… depending on where I fish and how far I go. But if I fish like I did this summer, they estimate that I could save as much as 80 percent of my diesel, which would be close to eight or nine hundred gallons.”

A gallon of diesel emits 22.46 pounds of carbon dioxide when burned, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says on their website. Citing the city’s Climate Action Task Force, Behnken said marine fuel use accounts for about 40 percent of Sitka’s carbon emissions.

“Fish for Families” wraps up summer of salmon distributions to Alaska Native communities experiencing record-low salmon returns

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

“Fish for Families” wraps up summer of salmon distributions to Alaska Native communities experiencing record-low salmon returns

Sitka, AK - In July and August, the Fish for Families project delivered more than 14,000 pounds of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon to families in the Chigniks and Yukon River regions where communities saw record-low wild salmon returns and subsistence fisheries were shut down, leaving many Alaska Native families without access to one of their most important sources of food.

In response to the summer’s low salmon returns and the growing demand for donated salmon throughout Alaska, the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) collaborated with the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and small-boat fishermen around the state to launch the Fish for Families initiative to help ensure that Alaska’s Native communities could continue to practice their cultural traditions and way of life. In order to help redistribute the abundance of wild salmon around the state, Fish for Families focused on sourcing salmon from Bristol Bay, which experienced a record-breaking run of 78 million sockeye salmon this summer–a stark contrast to the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers where Chinook, chum, and coho populations are at all-time lows.

Fish for Families’ first salmon distributions this summer took place in the Chigniks where approximately 5000 pounds of Bristol Bay sockeye was flown in and distributed to local families impacted by reduced salmon harvest. The Fish for Families project then turned to the Yukon region and worked with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and other regional partners to help deliver 8,000 pounds of Bristol Bay sockeye to several Yukon River communities, including Anvik, Grayling, Holy Cross, and Shageluk, with plans to deliver an additional 3,000 pounds of salmon to St. Mary’s.

“It was really important to us that we expand our salmon distributions to the Yukon where they are facing a true food security crisis due in part to climate change’s impacts on our marine ecosystem and the health of our wild salmon runs. We recognize that this summer’s salmon donations are a band-aid at best and that we ultimately need to address the underlying causes of these devastating declines,” said Linda Behnken, Executive Director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and ASFT Board President. “Through the Fish for Families project, we hope to meet these short-term needs while at the same time build a network of like-minded fishermen, processors, communities, and organizations that are committed to building a more resilient and equitable food system in Alaska that supports the long-term well-being of Alaskans.”

"When others are in need, Alaskans pull together and support one another. We couldn't be more thankful and appreciative for the fish donation. It not only fed our families but our hearts as well. Right now our families are hurting because the fish have not returned and we cannot fish like we normally would. The devastation of the salmon population has a direct impact on our lives and quality of life,” said Sonta Roach, Shageluk Native Village Tribal Member. “I hope we can all work together to increase our fish population and get people back on the water and fishing like normal. Those are the days I hope for and look forward to."

To help fund the summer’s salmon distributions, the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust launched a GoFundMe campaign for the Fish for Families project and secured donations from foundations and partners, including the Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, Bristol Bay Native Corporation, Catch Together, and Alaska Conservation Foundation. In addition, other local Alaskan businesses helped with logistics support, seafood procurement, and donated transportation, including Northline Seafoods, Grant Air, Ryan Air, Alaska Pride Air and Everts Air.

The Fish for Families project is a collaboration of community-minded fishermen, businesses, and organizations, including the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, Northline Seafoods, North Soul Salmon, Net to Table Seafoods, Catch Together, Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Development Association, Copper River Fish Market, Boreal Sockeye,  Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association, SalmonState, and the Businesses for Conservation and Climate Action.

For more information about the Seafood Donation Program, including the Fish for Families GoFundMe campaign: https://www.alfafish.org/seafood-donation-program

Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association receives Seafood Industry Climate Award

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 26, 2022

 Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association receives
Seafood Industry Climate Award

In September 2022, Acme Smoked Fish Foundation announced the first grant recipients of the Seafood Industry Climate Awards. Each recipient will receive a $40,000 grant this year to support an innovation focused on lowering the carbon footprint within the seafood industry and/or increasing the leadership role of underrepresented groups in the industry. The first three award recipients are Aroostook Band of Mi’kmacs in Maine, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, and Luke’s Seafood.

Together with TD Bank as the catalyst sponsor, Acme’s awards program looks to support innovation that will mitigate the impacts of climate change, while featuring the work of underrepresented groups. In addition to funding, award recipients will have opportunities to work with leaders at Acme Smoked Fish Corp. 

“We are deeply honored to receive this reward and thrilled to advance this important work to reduce our fleet’s carbon footprint,” said ALFA executive director Linda Behnken. “With the help of our project partners, we are poised to implement the first hybrid commercial fishing boats in our country; with this support from the Acme Foundation and TD Bank, that transition will begin.”

ALFA has launched a pilot project to convert the Alaska fishing fleet to hybrid diesel/electric as the next best step toward decarbonization. With support from the Energy Transitions Initiative Project Partnership, ALFA has been working with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and Kemp Energetics to transfer technologies proven through other forms of transportation to small scale commercial fishing boats. The SICA award will be used to purchase equipment for ALFA’s hybridization/decarbonization project.

Hybrid boats make sense in the immediate future for many of our fleet,” Behnken added. “Our long-term goal is to completely decarbonize our fleet so we are doing our part to address climate change and ocean acidification. This award moves us closer to a carbon neutral future.” 

Fuel usage in wild capture fisheries contributes significantly to carbon emission and high costs in the seafood industry. The ALFA Boat Energy Transition Accelerator (ALFA BETA) SICA Award takes on this challenge, piloting technology that will lead the fleet toward a lower carbon footprint.

For more information on the Acme Smoked Fish Foundation and the Seafood Industry Climate Awards, visit: https://www.acmesmokedfish.com/the-seafood-industry-climate-award

Projects in the Field: ALFA, Chordata, and NPFA Work to Improve EM Image Quality in Near Real-Time

EM4FISH

SEP 1, 2022

By Abigail Turner-Franke, Dan Falvey, and Eric Torgerson

Maintaining high quality EM video while fishing is an important factor for keeping EM video review costs affordable and providing fishery managers with accurate data. High quality EM video is also fundamental to the development of machine learning capabilities that will further reduce review costs over the long term. That said, there is a lot going on when a vessel is actively fishing, with vessel/crew safety and efficiency of operations being the primary focus of the skipper and crew. To maintain high quality EM video in the complex, dynamic environment of a commercial fishing vessel, near real-time feedback to the vessel operator when EM video quality becomes degraded is crucial. The overall goal of this project was to find a way to improve image quality. We know that by developing a tool that can identify an image quality issue and alert a skipper, we can work toward producing more useable video data per trip for reviewers first, then fisheries managers.

Since 2010, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and the North Pacific Fisheries Association (NPFA) have been working with demersal longline and pot fixed gear vessels to develop practical EM solutions for fisheries monitoring in Alaska. The Alaska region fixed gear EM pool currently has approximately 170 vessels participating in a voluntary program where EM video is used to directly estimate discards for catch accounting purposes. In early 2020, fresh out of the National Electronic Monitoring Workshop in Seattle, where machine learning was a hot topic, ALFA’s Dan Falvey and NPFA’s Abigail Turner-Franke developed a pilot project to work with Chordata LLC’s Eric Torgerson to develop computer vision tools for the detection of EM video quality issues such as water drops, condensation and dirty lenses in real-time, onboard the vessel. Thanks to funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, this pilot project was launched and is showing promising results.

Projects in the Field is a series of independently produced articles profiling work supported by NFWF’s Electronic Monitoring & Reporting Grant Program, and is meant to raise awareness and support for these important initiatives. To submit an article for this series, please contact us at info@em4.fish.

Click here to read the article on EM4FISH’s website.

Southeast Conference receives $49 million- U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) historic Build Back Better Regional Challenge

EDA

September 2, 2022

Southeast Conference receives $49 million on behalf of the Alaska Mariculture Cluster as a winner in the U.S. Department of Commerce, Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) historic Build Back Better Regional Challenge

President Biden announced today that the Alaska Mariculture Cluster (AMC), led by Southeast Conference, has been selected as one of 21 winners of the $1 billion Build Back Better Regional Challenge. These funds, $49 million plus another ~$15 million in cash and in-kind contributions by partners, will be used to provide transformational development of a viable and sustainable mariculture industry producing shellfish and aquatic plants for the long-term benefit of Alaska’s economy, environment, and communities.

The AMC’s winning proposal gets its blueprint from years of work by the Alaska Mariculture Task Force whose previous work provided several publications and plans to overcome the many challenges and systematic barriers faced by the industry. The proposal includes 7 unique yet interdependent projects that together will support sustainable growth of the industry. Southeast Conference’s Executive Director, Robert Venables stated, “The strength of this application has its roots in the many years of work done by the Governor’s Alaska Mariculture Task Force. They truly deserve the credit for our success today.”

At the heart of the AMC’s proposal is a commitment to collaboration and inclusion, ensuring resources and opportunities are available and uniquely tailored to the needs and cultural values of communities throughout coastal Alaska. This commitment could not have been achieved without the close collaboration and support of the AMC’s many partners. “I’m really pleased to see this unique coalition come together across the state that has a strong commitment to the underserved communities in rural Alaska,” said Robert Venables.

Link to the EDA’s full announcement: https://eda.gov/news/press-releases/2022/09/02/Southeast- Conference.htm

SENATE COMMERCE, JUSTICE, AND SCIENCE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE SEEKS TO FULLY FUND THE YOUNG FISHERMEN’S DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR FY23

For Immediate Release: August 2, 2022

Contact: Ben Martens, 207-619-1755; ben@mainecoastfishermen.org

SENATE COMMERCE, JUSTICE, AND SCIENCE APPROPRIATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE SEEKS TO FULLY FUND THE YOUNG FISHERMEN’S DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM FOR FY23

Last week the Fishing Communities Coalition (FCC) applauded the Senate Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies (CJS) Appropriations Subcommittee for allocating $2,000,000 in funding to the Young Fishermen’s Development Grant Program for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23). The FCC thanks Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) for their strong support within their roles on the Senate Appropriations Committee. We also thank Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Dan Sullivan (R-AK) for leading the FY23 Senate request, along with fellow champions Senators Jack Reed (D-RI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Angus King (I-ME), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Maggie Hassan (D-NH).

According to Ben Martens, Executive Director of FCC member Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, "A fully funded Young Fishermen's Development Program means that we can give the next generation of fishermen in places like Maine the tools they need to continue to feed our communities fresh, healthy, delicious seafood and keep our working waterfronts working."

The Young Fishermen’s Development Program is a top priority for the FCC, who first proposed the idea in 2015. Since its inception, the FCC has worked diligently alongside our congressional champions to build support for the program and its authorizing legislation, The Young Fishermen’s Development Act, which was enacted on January 5, 2021 (P.L. 116-289).

“We are thrilled to see the Young Fishermen’s Development Program fully funded in the Senate FY23 CJS budget and deeply appreciate the leadership of Alaska’s delegation on this issue,” said Linda Behnken, Executive Director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, an FCC member. “Our young fishermen face ever growing challenges with a changing climate and a rapidly evolving industry. Fully funding this vital program will support their success.”

The Young Fishermen’s Development Program is a workforce development grant program to educate, train, and mentor young and beginning commercial fishermen. This program is a first-of-its-kind national program, following in the footsteps of numerous successful regional-level efforts, many of which were spearheaded by FCC member organizations.  

According to Eric Brazer, Deputy Director of the Gulf of Mexico Reef Fish Shareholders’ Alliance, “The Gulf of Mexico is associated with some of the U.S.’s favorite seafood – from your Mississippi shrimp to your Florida grouper and snapper. We’ve worked hard to provide job security for our commercial fishing businesses and food security for our coastal communities, and we’re excited to see the Senate prioritize a path forward to support the next generation of commercial fishermen leaders.”

This news follows action last month by the House CJS Appropriations Subcommittee, which also included funding for the program in the FY23 CJS report. As Congress stands poised to break for August recess, the FCC looks forward to working with House and Senate champions and appropriators this fall to ensure this important, timely program is fully funded for FY23. Doing so will better ensure the U.S.’s economically, historically, and culturally important commercial fishing industry prospers for generations to come.

"This is the first of many important steps needed to ensure that upcoming generations can maintain direct access to the means of production in coastal food systems,” said Marissa Wilson, Executive Director of the Alaska Marine Conservation Council, an FCC member. “Small-boat harvest of wild fish is an important tradition with values richer than money. Investing in this lifeway is vital to the wellness of communities along and inland of the nation's 95,000 miles of coastline."