Opinions

A healthy CDQ program increases Alaska's options for economic health

For more than 50 years, Alaska's Bering Sea has supported the world's most productive fisheries. Since statehood and the enactment of the Magnuson?Stevens Act, Alaskans acquired a role in managing these fisheries and made them the most sustainable in the world. However, for most of this time, Alaskans watched from our shores as foreign ships and then the Seattle fleets caught the fish and sold it into world markets. This finally began to change in 1992, when the North Pacific Fishery Management Council created the Western Alaska Community Development Quota program.

The CDQ program provided a mechanism for the federally managed fisheries to support an economy on Alaska's shores. Its success has been remarkable: CDQ has generated hundreds of millions of dollars in local wages, education, training benefits and other economic development for some of the most impoverished regions of our state. Moreover, CDQ is designed to play a long-term role, slowly creating new opportunities that will generate benefits for years to come. Today, the CDQ groups represent significant direct ownership of the U.S. Bering Sea pollock fleet, which has been the backbone of the program's success.

Since 2008, I have represented Napakiak on the board of Coastal Villages Region Fund, a CDQ group serving 20 villages and over 9,000 people in Western Alaska. In 2015, I was elected by my fellow board members to serve as their chairman, and it has been an honor to work with my 19 elected colleagues to create and sustain economic opportunities for the people of our region. In 2014 alone, CVRF invested over $28 million into our region, through strategically designed projects and programs intended to facilitate the creation of jobs and real economic opportunities in some of Alaska's poorest areas.

Increasing economic development opportunities in the CVRF region, and across the CDQ territory as a whole, will become increasingly important as the state works to solve a historic budget deficit. With a $3.5 billion budget shortfall this year alone, and savings accounts that will soon be depleted, all options are going to be on the table -- from taxes to budget cuts -- when the Legislature begins its regular session in January. Whatever solutions are ultimately adopted will hit rural Alaska the hardest. Planning for a sustainable fiscal future during tough times requires hard choices, but we have opportunities now to take steps to mitigate the consequences. Maintaining a healthy and vibrant CDQ program will ensure that Coastal Villages Region Fund and our CDQ brethren continue to support our communities during these difficult economic times, and for generations to come.

CDQ groups are in a unique position to affect economic development in the regions and villages we represent, and we should further leverage those efforts by partnering with others who share the same goal. We have seen it work -- in the small community of Platinum on the western coast of Alaska, collaboration between private industry and the state of Alaska allowed fresh Goodnews Bay salmon to be flown direct to domestic markets by an Alaska-owned fishing company. In 2013, CVRF and the state of Alaska joined forces to extend and widen the runway in Platinum. This critical project promotes safer travel to and from the village, but also enabled CVRF to partner with another Alaska company -- Lynden Transport -- in 2015 to take advantage of a short-lived fresh salmon market that would not have been accessible prior to the improved runway. We hope to cultivate additional collaboration between the CDQ regions, the industry and the state because profits resulting from our joint efforts in cases like Platinum will be reinvested back into the region in the form of benefits, jobs and opportunities for our people.

For generations, the people of western Alaska have lived off the abundance of the Bering Sea. Today, our fishers fish our waters and harvest the resource it provides. The pollock, cod, crab, salmon and halibut we bring to markets across the world help fuel the economies that provide jobs that result in real wages for real people who must provide for real families. In our region, it has led to the creation of over 1,300 wage-earning opportunities each year on average. In addition to employment opportunities, our Bering Sea revenues have funded scholarships for our young adults, critical equipment for village life at affordable prices, job opportunities for youth and young adults, funds to help facilitate village projects such as building renovations, public safety, trail markers and emergency shelters, home heating oil relief, household expenses relief for elders and much more. You can learn more by visiting www.CoastalVillages.org.

Alaska is facing some tough choices ahead, but there shouldn't be any question that continuing to strengthen the CDQ program needs to be a top priority of state and federal officials.

ADVERTISEMENT

Richard Jung serves as the Coastal Villages Region Fund's chairman and represents the village of Napakiak on its board of directors.

The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary@alaskadispatch.com.

Richard Jung

Richard Jung serves as Coastal Villages Region Fund’s chairman and represents the village of Napakiak on its Board of Directors.

ADVERTISEMENT