A big item on the agenda for the June 1-9 meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Anchorage is management of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crab fisheries.
One proposal the council is mulling is elimination of processor quota shares (Deckboss, May 18).
Steve Minor, executive director of an association of crab processing companies, is among those arguing to keep processor shares.
He's written this brief analysis of one reason why processor shares are working, and concludes: "Alaska should be extraordinarily happy."
Deckboss disclaimer: I post Steve's analysis not because I agree or disagree with it. Rather, I just find it informative and admire its brevity for such a complicated subject.
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2 comments:
Wesley,
What do you hear about Measure 209 that will be before the Council next week? John Finley is all up in arms about it in today's Kodiak Daily Mirror.
It could be there is more to the story. Some of these processing shares have been sold and financed with debt extended by the seller(Major processors).
By the time the "new" Alaskan owners make their loan payments, much if not all of the economic advantages are transferred back to the original sellers, which are major processors.
In many ways these transactions present no net new benefit to Alaskans, but do present a political benefit to the major seafood processing companies, which find themselves under scrutiny.
Sell em to the Indians, and then get the government to take them back.
The majors still sell almost every pound, and I don't think that is an accident.
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