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ALASKA CHARTER ASSOCIATION
"To preserve and protect the rights and resources of Alaska's recreational angler."
UPDATE
Alaskans Lose a Quarter Billion $ if Alaska CARES Grant Program Falls Short
Here is the webpage to contact your representative in the Alaska State Legislature:
Your message can be this simple:
"Alaska needs every dime of AK Cares Act grant funding coming to us. The legislature needs to meet and vote! "
Part of the federal disaster relief funds approved in Congress were direct grants to states to help businesses and their workers to stay afloat during the Lockdown. Alaska was budgeted $290 million.
On June 1st, grant applications opened for the $290M Alaska CARES Grant Program aimed at Alaska businesses who did not receive COVID-19 relief dollars from the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) or other federal “loan” programs under CARES Act.
As of June 29th, only $6.2M of the $290M have been awarded. There were 1,947 applicants and only 167 have been approved. That is, only 2 percent of this disaster relief has reached the businesses and non-profits in this state.
That means a quarter-billion dollars is sitting on the table during one of the greatest financial and health disasters in our history. Oh, and we could lose it, unless the legislature calls a special session to meet in person and vote on it. They need to fix this mess soon, because the deadline for using these particular funds is drawing near. Snooze and lose? Then that big pile of money goes back to Washington DC.
What could Alaskans do with this money?
- direct assistance to struggling businesses
- health care support
- grants for purchasing safety gear and sanitizers
- fisheries research to sustain our businesses
- grants for promoting travel to Alaska and rebuilding the economy
- aid to harbor districts and infrastructure
You probably have some ideas yourself. We would rather see dump trucks filled with cash spill money around the state than send a quarter billion back to DC.
The program aimed for dispersing the majority of the grant money in the first 30 days! The PPP funds ran out in the first week. What happened here? Most businesses received some form of federal assistance already, so they didn’t qualify for these grants.
As a result, the rules put in place by the Alaska State legislature need to be fixed, and fixed fast.
The ACA has written several letters to the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, requesting they expand the program to include all Alaska small businesses. “The PPP was for our employees and we are grateful for that, but the only businesses relief offered to cover our business losses has come in the form of loans, a debt that will have to be repaid which adds to our already negative balance sheets.”
The ACA testified at a recent Legislative Labor and Commerce Committee meeting to remove the restrictions regarding disqualification based on past federal assistance. To change any of the provisions of the CARES Grant Program, the legislature must reconvene in special session and vote.
Non-Profit organizations such as the ACA (a trade association) are also currently excluded from applying. As a trade organization made possible through membership dues and considering the financial crisis our industry is facing, support will become more difficult. We are not the only organization in this boat, and many of the local community Chambers of Commerce are organizations with the same status. We asked that 501(c)6 non-profits be allowed to apply for this grant. Businesses that already got loans to cover worker paychecks should also be allowed to apply.
It’s been a big weekend and now, Monday morning, we need to write, email, fax, or phone all our State Senators and Representatives and ask them to return to Juneau and take care of this urgent matter. They will be "meeting" on Tuesday for another committee meeting over the webcams, but to approve the needed changes there needs to be an in-person vote.
For this kind of money, they need to fly to Juneau.
Here is the webpage to contact your representative in the Alaska State Legislature:http://akleg.gov/senate.php
Your message can be this simple: Alaska needs every dime of AK Cares Act grant funding coming to us. The legislature needs to meet and vote!
You can send a quick email here with your comment:hlac@akleg.gov
Relaxed Halibut Regs Approved, and effective NOW
Liberalized Halibut Regulations that passed the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the International Pacific Halibut Commission,now passes final regulatory review in DC.
Effectively immediately, regulations are revised for halibut sport fishing from charter vessels in International Pacific Halibut Commission regulatory Areas 2C (Southeast Alaska) and 3A (Southcentral Alaska)
The revised regulations are as follows:
Area 2C:
- The size limit for retained halibut by charter vessel anglers must be less than or equal to 45 inches or greater than or equal to 80 inches in length.
Area 3A:
- Charter vessel anglers may keep one fish of any size per day and one fish that is no more than 32 inches in length.
- Charter vessel anglers are not subject to an annual limit on the number of halibut they retain. Anglers are no longer required to record halibut caught on charter vessel fishing trips in Area 3A on the back of the fishing license or a harvest record card.
- Charter vessel anglers may catch and retain halibut on all days of the week.
- These revised regulations will remain in effect through the 2020 fishing season.The final rule that implements these regulations is forthcoming and will be published in the Federal Register. In addition to these revised regulations, all other halibut sport fishing regulations remain unchanged.
The ACA hopes everyone is staying healthy and wishes all a good season under these trying times.
U.S. Small Business Administration
How to Apply for A Small Business Loan
From the Small Business Administration:
"We know you are facing challenging times in this current health crisis. The U.S. Small Business Administration is committed to help bring relief to small businesses and nonprofit organizations suffering because of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
On March 27, 2020, President Trump signed into law the CARES Act, which provided additional assistance for small business owners and non-profits, including the opportunity to get up to a $10,000 Advance on an Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL). This Advance may be available even if your EIDL application was declined or is still pending, and will be forgiven.
"If you wish to apply for the Advance on your EIDL, please visit www.SBA.gov/Disaster as soon as possible to fill out a new, streamlined application. In order to qualify for the Advance, you need to submit this new application even if you previously submitted an EIDL application. Applying for the Advance will not impact the status or slow your existing application.
Also, we encourage you to subscribe to our email updates via www.SBA.gov/Updates and follow us on Twitter at @SBAgov for the latest news on available SBA resources and services. If you need additional assistance, you can find your local SBA office and resource partners at www.SBA.gov/LocalAssistance. If you have questions, you may also call 1-800-659-2955."
IPHC Approves Charter Harvest Measures for 2020 Season
Anchorage, February 7. The IPHC (International Pacific Halibut Commission) adopted catch limits for 2020, which included harvest measures (bag limits) for Areas 2C and 3A.
2C - One fish daily bag limit, Reverse slot limit: Less than or equal to 40 inches, or greater than or equal to 80 inches.
3A - Annual limit of 4 halibut per charter angler, Limit of 1 charter trip per vessel per day, Limit of 1 charter trip per Charter Halibut Permit per day, Tuesdays and Wednesdays closed to halibut retention all year, Daily bag limit of 2 halibut with one fish of any size and one fish less than or equal to 26 inches.
96th Session of the IPHC held in Anchorage, AK
ACA's Work is Crucial to the Viability of the Sport Fishing Sector in a Commercially-Driven Industry
- Your business success is linked to your client's continued fair and equitable access to fish.
- Regulators need to know charter operators need stable and predictable allocations and regulations in order to market their services.
- Regulators need to know the value of a recreational fishery not only in terms of economic importance, but the social and cultural benefits this brings to the sport fishing public.
CHP Annual Registration Required for 2020
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council took action last year on an issue that would create an annual renewal process for charter halibut permits (CHPs) in IPHC Regulatory Areas 2C and 3A. This application process would require CHP holders (including Community Quota Entities and U.S. Military Morale, Welfare, and Recreation groups) to submit CHP number, CHP holder name, address, phone number and/or email address, as well as any updates to the CHP ownership structure.
The intent of this annual registration process is to provide more complete and useful information to evaluate whether changes to the CHP Program are necessary as a result of changes in ownership and participation of CHPs, to facilitate retirement of non-transferable permits when ownership changes, and improve the ability of enforcement agents to ensure valid permits are being used.
Note: Although NMFS is currently accepting applications, the new software applications that will allow RAM Division to process the annual CHP registrations and process the transfers of CHPs is still under development. Currently, any applications that RAM receives are being held in safekeeping until development and testing is completed. NMFS and the IT folks are very much aware of the February 1 opening of the sport fishery so that's our target for having everything in place. If anyone is in urgent need of obtaining their 2020 CHP (e.g. fishing winter chinook & halibut), I advise they contact RAM directly at 1-800-304-4846.
Click here for link to NMFS Website for form, listed under additional applications.
Allocation: New Study on Economic Value of Charter Sportfish
Decisions about how to share the catch between recreational anglers and commercial fishermen are always a food fight. Federal law gives the vague guidance that decisions be "fair and equitable" and are based on assigning fish to each sector according to the economic benefit to the nation.
Many studies have shown that more $ are generated per # of fish caught in the sportfishery.
Yet specific studies of the economic value of each state and each species are hard to come by and allocation decisions often don't look very hard for the data.
NMFS has finally completed a comprehensive report on the money generated by the recreational charter fishing sector in Alaska, and it could not be more timely.
Looking ahead the North Council will be starting a federally-required review of allocation of halibut between recreational and commercial sectors.
The data is clear in this fishery and the ACA will be highlighting some of the key findings in this new study, which should inform fishery managers on how to slice the halibut pie.
We are posting a link at the bottom of this blog post to the complete document and we encourage everyone to review these findings. It is eye-opening.
from: NOAA Fisheries:
"Costs, Earnings, and Employment in the Alaska Saltwater Sport Fishing Charter Sector, 2017"
by D. K. Lew, and J. Lee
INTRODUCTION
In recent years Alaska’s sport fisheries have undergone substantial changes, particularly in the management of the Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) charter fishery. As a result of these regulatory changes, participation in the charter sector Pacific halibut fishery has been capped with a limited entry program, and charter vessel operators in some areas have been subject to size restrictions and bag limits on the catch of Pacific halibut during guided trips, as well as restrictions in recent years on which days of the week guided halibut fishing trips can occur. Additionally, a halibut catch sharing plan (CSP) formalizing the process of allocating catch between the commercial and charter sectors was implemented in 2014 (78 FR 39121). Most recently, a recreational quota entity that would be allowed to buy (and sell) commercial fishing quota shares as an additional means for cross-sectoral allocation is being implemented (83 FR 47819).
In spite of regulatory changes in Alaska’s sport fisheries over the last decade, information about how changes in fisheries management tools affect sport fishery anglers and charter businesses has generally been somewhat limited to date (Lew and Larson 2012, 2015, 2017; Lew et al. 2016). While some information on the Alaska charter boat sector has been collected through the Statewide Harvest Survey and Saltwater Charter Logbook program , data collection has generally been limited to information about angler participation and harvest. Information on vessel and crew characteristics, services offered to clients, and information detailing cost and earnings have generally not been available for study or use in policy analyses.
To address this gap in information, the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) developed and implemented the Alaska Saltwater Sport Fishing Charter Business Survey to collect baseline economic information about the charter fisheries sector for use in understanding the economics of the charter sector and evaluating the effects of regulatory changes on the sector.
Download the full report here: Costs, Earnings, and Employment in the Alaska Saltwater Sport Fishing Charter Sector, 2017, by D. K. Lew, and J. Lee
Client Membership Drive
It's time for our clients to be counted! With the formation of a Recreational Quota Entity just around the corner, we will need a means for guided anglers to get engaged in the regulatory process. Please encourage your clients to sign-up now and support our efforts to improve recreational fishing in Alaska.
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