The Alaska Board of Fisheries has formed a new committee to study the effects of coastal erosion impacts on set gillnet operations after its 2015 Bristol Bay Finfish meeting when stakeholders testified about erosion and sediments filling in along coastal areas causing problems with gillnetting sites.
Board members Reed Morisky, of Fairbanks, and Bob Mumford, of Anchorage, will sit on the committee. They’re tasked with helping the board develop a policy to address issues that could arise — such as how Department of Natural Resources leases could be affected — when the board deliberates regulatory changes to set gillnet operations.
The new committee will meet in early January and its members are seeking comments from stakeholders.
Morisky and Mumford will meet for three hours, telephonically, on Monday and will host listening and testifying locations in Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Dillingham and King Salmon. The deadline to sign up for public testimony is Saturday; the committee will be taking written testimony as well.
Board Support Executive Director Glenn Haight said people who want to testify who could not attend one of the physical locations would be given a number to call to participate.
“I think it’s a really important thing for us to address,” said board chairman Tom Kluberton during the Bristol Bay meeting. “We know these things came over a long period of time, but after this meeting I’m absolutely certain we’re going to see an ever increasing volume of these kinds of things.”
The first committee meeting will involve input from the departments of Natural Resources, Law and Public Safety, according to a public notice of the meeting.
To testify, contact Haight at glenn.haight@alaska.gov or at 907-465-6095. To submit written comments, mail them to Boards Support Section at P.O. Box 115526, Juneau, Alaska 99811 or email PDFs to dfg.bof.comments@alaska.gov. Written comments are due Saturday.
Reach Rashah McChesney at rashah.mcchesney@peninsulaclarion.com.
