Contact these people: ask questions, make comments, and fax or email letters
President of the United States, Barrack Obama- http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Secretary of Commerce, Gary Locke- http://www.commerce.gov/contact-us
Dr. Jane Lubchenco, NOAA Chief Administrator- jane.lubchenco@noaa.gov, Fax (202) 408-9674
Eric Schwaab, Assistant Administrator of Fisheries- eric.schwaab@noaa.gov, (301) 713-2239 x 195
Governor Sean Parnell, Senator Lisa Murkowski, Senator Mark Begich, Rep. Don Young
The contact information for these four can be found on http://www.electedlist.com/Alaska.html
Dear “title”,
I’m writing you about my concerns with the Halibut Catch Sharing Plan for district 3A. I am a self employed charter skipper who has been in this business - as deckhand to skipper - for the last 27 years in Homer Alaska. I’ve attended North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) meetings and recognized that my charter industry is under represented and always outvoted by commercial fishing interests.
The Halibut Catch Sharing Plan proposed by the NPFMC may be the last straw to put me out of business. Historically, while the commercial fishermen have had halibut fishing quotas increase over many years, the charter fishing quotas were fixed and not allowed to change (increase at the same time). A new plan has evolved and for the first time this year the charter quota will change – that is DECREASE! Why? Because the Halibut Catch Sharing plan was designed by commercial fishing interests to reallocated charter quota to their interests. The catch sharing plan is not a conservation issue, it is an allocation issue. It’s about which interests gets the bigger piece of this fishery. I can go on and on about how unfair the NPFMC policies have been for my charter business, suffice it to say I feel like Don Quixote and the NPFMC are the windmills.
The reduction proposed will drastically decrease my business’ ability to charter. The proposed limit will, in effect, take away at least 50% of my fishing “quota”. Where last year I would have been allowed to take a client out to catch 2 halibut, the Halibut Catch Sharing Plan would limit the client to catch 1 fish. This limitation will no doubt have clients cancel plans they have already booked for the 2011 fishing season. The timing of this, along with downturn in business over the last two years of recession, puts me and other small charter boat operators on the brink.
This change will affect our entire coastal town’s economy. When you look at the entire halibut fishery, the allocation to the charter fleet is really quite small – even smaller than the amount of commercial fishing “by-catch” (fish not counted as quota when caught outside of normal commercial halibut fishing runs). However, I believe the economic impact of the charter fishing fleet to our community is larger than that provided by the commercial fisheries.
Our local economy, like many other small Alaska coastal communities, is driven by tourism. Our last commercial fish cannery of any size closed over a decade ago; much of the economic benefit from the commercial catch leaves our community the moment the fish are caught. Since the canneries have left, we have evolved into a tourist community. Homer is considered the “Halibut Capital of the World” and uses this logo in welcoming tourists to our community. That will all change with a stroke of a pen as directed by the NPFMC.
Please do not allow this to happen.Sincerely,
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