Alaska board of fish will take up Bristol Bay finfish regulations and proposals at a meeting in Dillingham late in 2018.
Audio Transcript:
The Alaska Board of Fisheries will be coming back to Dillingham when it meets again on Bristol Bay finfish in late 2018. Glenn Haight is the board’s executive director.
"What the board’s typically done with the Bristol Bay finfish meeting is gone between the Bay and Anchorage every other meeting. So it was in Naknek in 2012, and then it went to Anchorage for the meeting last year. So it’s going back to the Bay for this upcoming meeting."
The board last came to Dillingham in December of 2006.
The decision was made at the board’s recent work session in Soldotna. Haight says the board took a few public comments both for and against bringing the meeting about Bristol Bay into the Bristol Bay region.
"People of course want it in their region, it makes good sense, it’s cheaper for travel purposes than meeting in Anchorage. The counter view that we hear a lot of times for Bristol Bay is that a lot of the folks that fish out there are from Anchorage or other parts, so Anchorage can be a more convenient spot for them. So it’s just a balancing act that the board tries to handle."
Haight says the board usually takes into consideration the availability of food and lodging, and especially now internet: the board streams audio of its meetings live, which requires a certain amount and reliability of bandwidth to do.
The meeting is scheduled in late November of 2018. The call for proposal deadline will be in April of 2018.
"We will put out a call for proposals earlier that winter, in 2017, announcing that deadline in April 2018. So it’s that winter there between 2017 and 2018 that people want to be thinking about proposals," said Haight.
He recommends using the Advisory Council process to submit proposed regulation changes, but that’s not a requirement.
The Board of Fish meets on Bristol Bay finfish issues every three years, which is so far unchanged despite some calls to lengthen the cycle to save money.