Alaska Senate bill looks to address ‘graying of the fleet’

Bristol Bay salmon horizontal
A commercial fisherman and salmon in Bristol Bay, July 2, 2013. (Creative Commons photo by Chris Ford)

A new bill working its way through the Alaska Senate would address the state-wide issue of the graying of the fleet.

Many commercial fishermen are reaching retirement age or beyond, with no younger fishermen in their wake to take over the limited number of permits.

The bill had its first hearing, but will need some changes before going further.

Sponsored by Gary Stevens of Kodiak, Senate Bill 211 is aimed at getting more limited-entry commercial fishing permits into the hands of younger fishermen.

During a Senate Resources Committee hearing this week, Stevens said it’s not only about making the fleet younger, but finding a financial means to transfer those licenses.

“As you heard Mr. Burns say, he bought his permit for $15,000. Well, we’re at $300,000 now and vessel and gear and all that. It’s just more than most young people can accumulate to start out in their life. We did hear from the gentleman saying he’s going to pass (his license) on to his son. That’s the traditional way to do it, but some folks don’t have sons to pass it on to and need to find a way to move ahead on this.”

Stevens’ bill is called the Alaska Master Fisherman Retirement Transfer Act.

Over time and with specific monitoring and criteria, a master fisherman would pass along his permit to a journeyman.

The journeyman would have to be temporarily granted the permit each fishing season, up to three, and they would have to have been employed by the master fisherman for at least a year prior, among a number of other stipulations.

Some of the work yet to be done includes the financing part, which can get tricky based on current rules for license transfers.

Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission chair Fate Putman said the commission expects money will change hands between master and journeymen, but exactly how that transaction will be handled hasn’t been laid out yet.

“There probably will be an exchange of the catch profits between the master and the journeyman. I think that’s pretty normal. You’ll see in here a provision that requires us to maintain the contracts between the two and review the contracts, so we’re watching for leasing. But we also know that there probably will be an exchange of financing between the two parties as they go forward through the three year process, so we expect that to happen.”

Stevens said  the bill will go on the back burner for now while more details, especially concerning financing, are hammered out.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications