Laine Welch: The graying of Alaska's crab industry

http://www.adn.com/article/20141020/laine-welch-graying-alaskas-crab-industry

Laine Welch: The graying of Alaska's crab industry
Laine Welch
October 20, 2014

The Bering Sea crab fleet now stands at 77 vessels, a far cry from the nearly 250 boats in a frenzied race to pull pots before the fishery downsized to catch shares in 2005. Fewer boats means fewer hands on deck, and as with other fisheries, the Bering Sea crabbers are “graying” and need to recruit young entrants to sustain the iconic fisheries. The shareholders have devised a way to give captains and crews a first crack at available crab.

“The long-term future of the fishery is dependent on bringing young people in. That’s not unique to crab; we are seeing it all over Alaska and fisheries in the U.S.,” said Mark Gleason, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, a harvester group. “There just isn’t that pipeline of young people coming up through the ranks, and a ‘right of first offer’ program is one of the ways we hope to change that.”

It has long been a goal of fishery managers to make sure that active participants have access to crab quota shares. Gleason said in numerous workshops, ABSC got feedback from captains and crew members on road blocks to buying in and that helped shape the ROFO program.

“Basically, it carves out at a minimum 10 percent of a (catch share) transaction, and that is then offered on a right of first offer basis to active participants. So there is prior notification when quota becomes available, it takes large blocks and chops it up into smaller chunks, and it increases transparency.”