*Editor's Note: This is not a full transcript of the complete interview between KMXT and Nick Begich. However, what is written includes excerpts from the full interview which can be heard in its entirety by clicking on the audio link in this post. This interview was recorded on May 24, 2024 around Crabfest time in Kodiak.
Davis Hovey, KMXT: You've been chatting with some folks around here, and obviously, I'm sure fisheries have come up quite a few times. What are you looking at in terms of potential solutions to help address some of the issues that might have been presented to you about the fishing industry as a whole?
Nick Begich: I think what we all recognize is that bycatch is an issue. We've got a major problem with bycatch, and there are a number of complexities, as we all know, with respect to changing ocean currents, warming patterns and trends; everything from predator control to the bycatch issue, they all interplay and create a net impact on the fisheries. And understanding how those interplays operate is an important ongoing component to managing a sustained yield in the fisheries, very important. And so you know, if you're going to make high quality policy that's going to result in a better sustainability for the fishery, then you've got to understand how those interplay.
KMXT: Pivoting a little bit off of fisheries, what would you say some of your top priorities are, that you want to focus on if you’re elected?
Begich: So we have to come to the Congress, my view, with a set of priorities that can be encoded in law, so that when one administration comes in, they don't change all of our rules on us, and then four years later, a new administration comes in and changes the rules back to the way they were. The reason why that's so important is because businesses are trying to make investments that sometimes last 10 to 30 years, and you can't make a 30-year investment on a four-year time horizon. And so it hurts our state to have that much regulatory uncertainty. So that's one big priority. Another big priority at the national level is, you know, we're dealing with an inflationary environment that just won't seem to go away. So we've got a Federal Reserve that's buying all of the debt that we can create, and in order to do that, they create money out of thin air and shoot those excess dollars through the economy. And we've seen this as a policy play itself out over history, right? It seems like every time you see a failed currency, it's because they followed this path where they said we can print as much money as we want with no consequence. Well, there is a consequence, and the consequence is inflation; so we've got to get that under control.
KMXT: Looking at sort of the repercussions or impacts of a changing climate, we were talking earlier about the fisheries, the nature of the ecosystem changing. You've got certain communities faced with significant erosion, relocation. How would you sort of help present some maybe different solutions to climate change in the state?
Begich: In some cases, you can manage some of this with erosion control methodologies, and we've seen some success with that, even in places like Kenai right, where they're doing that in some of the more populated centers. But erosion control is not always the answer. Sometimes the answer is, hey, we need to move this village somewhere completely different, where it's not going to be moved every 10 years, it's going to be moved permanently to another location. And those are situational considerations. And so, you can have a broader discussion about the root cause of climate change, and you know whether we can do anything about that, truly in the medium to long term, but in the short term, you know, mitigating the effects of a changing climate is important for Alaskan communities, and it needs to be a priority for our delegation.
KMXT: Last comments, any thoughts that you’d like to share specifically with our audience here on Kodiak Island?
Begich: Well, look, at the end of the day, the seat doesn't belong to any one person. It belongs to the people of Alaska. And if you'd like to see a change, if you'd like to see stronger leadership for Alaska in the house, it's up to you. It's completely up to you. And I hope that if you're listening today, that you'll take time, do your homework on the candidates, and make sure to vote.
