The 90 -10 Cartel

"Processors said it was too early to tell what prices would be, but Tom Casey, director of the Alaska Fisheries Conservation group, which represents 19 crab vessels, said most fishers were getting about $4 a pound, compared with $4.85 to $5 a pound during the opener last year." Read the Alaska Journal of Commerce article here.

P. cod jig boat in Dutch Harbor.

I won't say a lot about this sorry state of affairs, because it's easy to point out the egg on someone else's face. But "rationalization" folks could learn a thing or two from the salmon "revitalization" folks. Fisherfolk and communities have a hard enough time with laws that come down from the NPFMC court. They don't need laws coming down from the Alaska legislature on how to run a fishery. I guess some legislators saw the NPFMC wield their club on all those crab crewmen and skippers that lost their jobs and thought it looked like fun.

I find it hard to comprehend that an Alaska state legislator would bring a dog and pony show to the constituency instead of just doing the job and finding out how people felt first. I can see the Department of Transportation doing it, like they did with the Southeast Transportation Plan, but not a legislator. DOT was going to make people walk 1/4 mile through Stikine winds to get on and off ferries at the south end of Mitkof Island, which they had only flown over once or twice on a sunny day. (That would have included women with small children down to newborns.) Why didn't DOT ask the loggers who had a log dump in the area what it would be like to land a ferry there.

Why don't some State legislators ask their constituents about processor quota legislation that could change their lives forever, BEFORE making up their minds. I believe most fishermen would agree that we need more social entrepreneurship in the fishing industry and less social engineering.