Bering Sea crabbers again face the prospect of a delayed fishery as congressional Republicans threaten to shut down the government, this time over federal funding of Planned Parenthood.
A shutdown two years ago stalled the opener by two days, costing the fleet more than $5 million in food, fuel and other fees as the boats stood idly by for a week or more.
"It was a huge mess," said Mark Gleason, executive director of the trade group Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers. "We have a very tight time frame – when the fishery opens on Oct. 15, we need to be out there getting that crab caught, processed and on its way to Japan to take advantage of the holiday market."
A shutdown means no federal workers on the job to issue permits to those holding crab-catch shares. No permits, no fishery.
"You have a situation where you not only have harm to the crab fishermen, but also to the processors in the area. You have an economic impact to a whole region because you don't have somebody in an agency who is there to pick up the phone, sign the piece of paper to issue the harvest limits," said Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski. "Nothing can happen."
The thing is, the Bering Sea crab fisheries are not beholden to federal dollars. Crabbers pay an annual fee based on their catches that's expected to cover management and enforcement costs. (Alaska longliners with shares of halibut and sablefish do the same.)
"We've made the case that we pay our bills upfront, we cover the costs of management, the money is in the bank and because this money is not subject to federal appropriations, the workers shouldn't be subject to the furloughs and we should have the quotas issued on time," Gleason said.
According to the Federal Register, the fee was increased from 0.65 percent of the total value of the catch in 2013 to 1.48 percent last year and this year to cover the cost of maintaining and upgrading the permitting and Internet landings systems. That's yielded more than $3 million.
A government shutdown will have adverse impacts on all federally managed fisheries, meaning those from 3 to 200 miles offshore. More than 80 percent of Alaska's seafood by volume comes from federal waters.
Nautical expertise
Many fishing trips have been cut short by a hydraulics or electrical system breakdown, from a single pot hauler on a skiff to freezers on huge floating processors. That's why self-paced, basic courses in both are offered to fishermen and other mariners online by the University of Alaska Southeast in Sitka.
"There's no class meetings, so whenever you have the time to get online and work through the material, as long as you have it finished in three months, you're good to go," said Teal Gordon, a UAS program support specialist.
Fishermen brought the need for the training courses to university program planners, said Paul Rioux, who teaches the hydraulics course launched in 2011.
"We jokingly refer to the hydraulics as the 'ghost of the machine' because a lot of fishermen have a real understanding of their engines and most of their gear, but few have a really good working knowledge of the technical side of how the hydraulics actually work," Rioux said. "The real simple trollers or gillnetters only have an anchor winch or a set of gurdies or a net reel, but some boats have multiple systems with components controlling water pumps and freezer compressors and deck cranes and all sorts of things."
The hydraulics course takes six hours to complete and costs just $90.
An electrical course includes basic theory, power generation and distribution, safety and wiring.
"You get a 30-year-old boat and somebody adds something or takes something out and they leave the old wiring behind. Some of the wiring is just amazing," said Alan Sorum, a former Valdez harbormaster and port director who collaborated on the boat electrical course, which is in its second year.
A top feature, Sorum said, is the focus on troubleshooting. Just knowing the rights and wrongs of basic bonding and grounding, for example, would prevent a harbormaster's biggest hassle.
"Boats have AC and DC systems and if they're not wired correctly you end up getting voltage or current in the wrong places, and it causes all kinds of problems – for your boat and your neighbor's boat – such as electrolysis," Sorum said. "For me that was always the biggest hassle – someone would complain about having a hot harbor or a prop getting eaten up, and it's so hard to track down who's causing the problem.
The electrical course takes up to 15 hours to complete and costs $125.
Both courses count as continuing education credits. Visit the University of Southeast at Sitka or call 907-747-7762 to register.
Fishing notes, knickknacks
• Alaska's salmon catch is nearing 256 million fish, well above the preseason forecast of 221 million.
• Hundreds of Southeast Alaska divers will harvest geoduck clams starting Oct. 1, with a harvest set at 534,000 pounds in all regions but Sitka, which may not open.
• A sea urchin haul set at about 3.8 million pounds opens the same day.
• Southeast's sea cucumber dive fishery opens Oct. 5 with a harvest limit of nearly 1.5 million pounds.
• Dungeness crabbing opens Oct. 1 throughout the Panhandle.
• Kodiak and the westward region also open for a sea cucumber fishery in October, with a combined harvest of 185,000 pounds.
• Alaska's halibut catch has just over 2 million pounds remaining in this year's 17 million -pound catch limit. It closes Nov. 7.
Finally, 11 Alaskans are in the running for one seat on the International Pacific Halibut Commission. They include:
• Incumbent Don Lane of Homer;
• Hunter Mann-Dempster of Sitka;
• Doug Vincent-Lang, former state director of the Division of Wildlife Conservation;
• Karl Johnstone, former chair of the Alaska Board of Fish;
• Richard Yamada, a Juneau charter operator;
• Bob King of Juneau, former legislative assistant to Sen. Mark Begich;
• Stephanie Madsen of Juneau, director of the At-Sea Processors Association;
• Linda Behnken of Sitka, director of the Alaska Longline Fisheries Association;
• Jeff Kauffman, CEO of the Central Bering Sea Fishermen's Association;
• Rob Edwardson, a former state environmental program manager, and
• Dan Hull (alternate only), chair of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
Comments and support letters may be sent to IPHC2015comments@noaa.gov by Oct. 23.
Laine Welch is a Kodiak-based commercial fishing columnist. Contact her at msfish@alaskan.com.