Thursday, August 4, 2011

Big money for big crab in Norton Sound

The recently concluded Norton Sound red king crab fishery generated a record ex-vessel value. Read all about it here.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds good, what is the advance price for Golden King Crab?

Anonymous said...

who cares about browns in a red crab fishery?

Anonymous said...

This is a very rosy report by a State employee cheerleading for funds from a People's Money program of the Pollock Fishery! We have to remember that the Norton Sound fisheries; salmon, crab and halibut are heavily subsidized by the CDQ program with funds in the millions of dollars stemming from the Pollock Fishery. Yeah, great for those "24 permit holders" bringing in over "2 million dollars" but what about the hundreds and hundreds of poor people scraping bottom every month just to heat their houses and feed their kids. We need economic development as those CDQ monies were intended for in the first place. It's a private club for a handful of CDQ cronies. Good news for Norton Sound alright!

Anonymous said...

Is that you again Tim?

Anonymous said...

The "24 permit holders" would still be fishing out of skiffs and risking their necks every day if it weren't for the "private club' CDQ. They would still be having to box and send their crab to Anc to sell. What else in Western Alaska has done as much for the communities and long term econ development. quit griping and start helping. Nome Citizen

Anonymous said...

What else has done as much for the communities and long term econ development? Nome Citizen asks. Well, lots of things. $75k gross for 24 crab permit holders in a region with 9,000 people is pretty underwhelming from a program reporting $25-$35 million of annual revenue.

I don't understand how pretending that a few crumbs for a few people is a major accomplishment helps the majority in Norton Sound communities. I do understand who it helps but most of them live in Seattle and Anchorage.

Anonymous said...

Question for 'Nome Citizen' - how do you propose we "start helping" the 8,950 poor Norton Sound people not part of the CDQ buddy system?

I have a suggestion. Let's stop pretending that the CDQ program is for Natives. NSEDC does very subtle manipulations like holding their quarterly meetings in the Native Corporation Boardroom in Nome. No room for the public. In fact at their last board meeting early this month, word is they had just enough chairs for their employees. Yes, they stack the meetings with their own little puppets. Public members attending are outnumbered on purpose. Besides that they are treated like Second Class Citizens especially if they are Big White Men. Calling them on their racism and discrimination is how I'm "helping". CDQ monies come from a common resource belonging to the people of The United States of America. It's not right that it's being hoarded for a handful of men and their buddies.

Anonymous said...

To 'Nome Citizen', I've been thinking about how I'm going to "start helping" the Norton Sound region through the CDQ program for going on six long, long years. That's when I learned about our King Salmon getting chucked over dead in the Pollock Fishery. I love King Salmon so I vowed to do what I can to help them survive. That in turn will also help the hundreds year old culture and tradition of the poor Alaska Natives who've live off of salmon as an important resource all these years.

The CDQ program 20 year Review is fastly approaching - next year 2012. I'm proposing the following changes:

Split up the Norton Sound CDQ group. It's too big - the northwestern villages have different problems from those in the southern Norton Sound. The southern Norton Sound dominates the program, making it unfair for the villages of Diomede, Wales, Brevig Mission and Teller. Lost in the middle are Golovin, Elim, Koyuk and White Mountain. Nome is in a class of it's own with no representation because their rep sides with the boys from Unalakleet, his hometown.

I propose:

Give Siu(SeeU), NSEDC's for profit corporation and all of their assets to the southern Norton Sound villages of Stebbins, St. Michael, Unalakleet and Shaktoolik, no strings attached. They are salmon rapers so being involved in the Pollock Fishery is right up their alley. They are trying to dominate the salmon fishery in our neck of the woods anyway. They can take the present NSEDC Administration too: Janis Ivanoff, Kyan Olanna, Charlie Lean, Simon Kineen, Roy Ashenfelter, Jerry Ivanoff, Beboks Ivanoff and their Communications Director Tyler Rhodes. They all belong in the same boat.

Give Diomede, Wales, Brevig Mission and Teller their own piece of the pie. They should be in control of their destiny. If they choose to prepare themselves to benefit from the Northern Bering Sea/Bering Straits region's eventually opening up for commercial fishing then by golly they should have that right! That's their backyard and they should be involved in any talk about opening it up to outsiders.

Nome is the most logical place for infrastructure support for the smaller CDQ groups so Nome should get their own share of the pie. Besides it's population is the biggest in the region. Then if Nome wants to restore their Salmon runs and their Salmon fishery then they can do just that.

Lastly, White Mountain, Golovin, Elim and Koyuk can be lumped in together. They can have NSEDC Board of Directors Chairman Dan Harrelson. He knows the ropes. Maybe their efforts as salmon fishermen will blossom without the control of Unalakleet and Shaktoolik.

With smaller CDQ groups, the opportunity for transparency and accountibility will increase 100%. People will be better able to communicate with people they are connected to.

'Nome Citizen' got a better idea?

Anonymous said...

Tim, get a life.

Anonymous said...

Some clown heckling stupid one-liners from the peanut gallery of a blog is advising someone else to get a life? Now that's funny.

Anonymous said...

In my proposal to split up the Norton Sound CDQ group, I forgot about the CDQ towns of St. Lawerance Island, Gambell and Savoonga. They'd probably fit best with Nome because they need support from the infrastructure that Nome already has.

But some southern Norton Sound village people cry that Nome already has too much! So what I ask? Let's reason this out a little. The poorest people in Nome are your brothers and sisters who moved in from the villages because there they have a better chance at getting somewhere. What few jobs in the villages are already taken. CDQ promised "fisheries related economic development" so let's not forget Nome's history of having a salmon fishery that crashed in the mid-80's.

Restoring the Nome salmon fishery will give those people an opportunity to do something they are familiar with. Fishing for food and fishing for a few bucks to supplement their low wage labor jobs will give them a better opportunity at having a better life.