City, Borough, Decry ‘Fish Stealing’

Brianna Gibbs/KMXT
Last night the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly and City Council gathered for a joint work session to discuss a variety of topics pertaining to both governing bodies. One item on the agenda was a fisheries update from Kodiak fishery advisor and a former member of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, Denby Lloyd. He spoke about a number of fishery items, including a recent incident involving what has been called alleged “fish stealing.”

— (Fisheries Update 1 :31 “Trident in particular … in Sand Point and Akutan.”)

He said some estimates put that as a 14 million pound loss to Kodiak’s plants.

— (Fisheries Update 2 :16 “Equaling about a $3.25 million … not insignificant.”)

He said it was a legal activity, but was also an interesting use, or potential abuse, of the American Fisheries Act.

— (Fisheries Update 3 :46 “Basically in the Bering … Pollock in the Bering Sea.”)

The issue prompted Kodiak’s mayoral delegation to sign a letter to the North Pacific Council, asking it to analyze the issue and produce a discussion paper that could be considered during the council’s meeting in June. The hope was that it would also lay the ground work for potential regulatory changes restricting that kind of tendering activity from happening in the future.
Lloyd said there was no testimony on the issue when it came before the North Pacific Council’s staff tasking agenda. For an issue dealing with millions of dollars bypassing Kodiak, Lloyd said he found the level of attention to the matter disappointing. He said the council was surprisingly unresponsive to the request to produce discussion papers about the issue, which could be the consequence of little testimony, or the fact that the tendering was perfectly legal.

— (Fisheries Update 4 :31 “And what they did decide to … management plans.”)

Lloyd said the North Pacific Council will meet in June, but whether the tendering topic will make the agenda is unknown, especially since the council will take a look at another important issue.

— (Fisheries Update 5 :28 “June meeting for the North … that that happens.”)

Lloyd said it remains to be seen whether the council will actually the matter, especially in the expedited fashion needed to preclude it from happening in future years
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