Sunday, December 22, 2013

Sharing the wealth

Coastal Villages Region Fund has approved a second round of funding for its People Propel initiative.

Coastal is an Anchorage-based company operating under the federal Community Development Quota program. It manages commercial fish harvests on behalf of a group of Bering Sea villages in the area of the Kuskokwim River delta.

With People Propel, Coastal offers village residents substantial subsidies for the purchase of boats, motors and nets.

Coastal evidently is doing great, certainly well enough to help buy some outboard boats and fishing gear.

Coastal's executive director, Morgen Crow, drew a $475,000 salary plus a $420,000 bonus in 2012, the company's latest annual report shows.

Six other staffers received in excess of $205,000.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. How about sharing the wealth back to the people actually catching their fish/crab. This program is completely out of hand. I like how they estimate the amount of fish they "should" have received in 2012 based on village population. I guess $100+ million just isn't enough anymore for doing nothing. They even break it down to how much they think the lease should be. I see $5.00/lb for BBR in 2012. This leaves about $2.00 to the men and women catching the crab; absolutely unacceptable. CDQ groups have completely transformed the BSAI fisheries. I think I'm sick to my stomach.

Anonymous said...

Once again we see where a large portion of Fed grant funds go: to a select few. Crow gets almost $1 million and six other staffers in excess of $205,000 each. Outrageous comes to mind. And this comes from non recourse grants that are meant to benefit the communities. Must be nice to fund nets, skiffs and outboards. Only problem is that where they need the most help the there are just not enough fish to support the communities. So the feds giveth and the ADF&G taketh away with their management of the resource. Ain't america wonderful?

Anonymous said...

Even more sickening is how the other groups want to hide what their board members and staffers make including the employes of the companies they partly own. Those St Paulers are making mega bucks with only 20 boats fishing for halibut. Their Board has their hand dipped in the golden bucket and make up more than half of the earnings from halibut fishing.

ugly. Just plain ugly.

St. Paul Island Fishermen said...

For generations, the Aleut fishermen of Saint Paul in the Pribilof Islands have fished for halibut from small boats in the waters of the Bering Sea surrounding their home. A traditional part of the island diet and culture, this subsistence fishery experience was the basis for the successful development of the commercial halibut fishery that is now the mainstay of Saint Paul’s economy.

The halibut fishery is not just the economic heart of Saint Paul – it is a customary fishery of the community during the brief and beautiful Pribilof summer, with deep roots and meaning. Each year, 80 to 100 people of the community participate in the halibut fishery, from the skippers to the boat crews to the young onshore hook baiters. Commercial halibut fishing employs much of the population, and provides a perfect example of what the Western Alaska Community Development Quota (CDQ) program was intended to accomplish – to develop a fishery-related economy.

When the U.S. government in the early 1980’s terminated the commercial fur seal harvest that had been the main source of livelihood and the economy of Saint Paul for two centuries, the local people began to develop a commercial fisheries economy to survive as a viable community. The community acquired the funding to build a boat harbor and develop a local fleet, and the Tribal Council established the first halibut processing plant to buy their catch. Large processing companies subsequently came to the Island to process crab, and also began processing halibut, adding to the substantial infrastructure that continues today to serve the North Pacific crab fleet as well as the local and outside halibut vessels.

By the time the CDQ program was put in place in 1992, many local halibut fishermen had established successful fishing operations. The fishermen’s group on Saint Paul, the Central Bering Sea Fishermen’s Association (CBSFA), was designated the CDQ management organization for Saint Paul. Every resident of Saint Paul over 18 years old is a member of CBSFA, and the membership elects the Board of Directors annually. The governing statute for the CDQ program – the Magnuson Stevens Act (MSA) – requires that 75% of the Board of Directors of a CDQ entity must be “resident fishermen.” Accordingly, all of the nine members of the current CBSFA Board, including the chairman, president and vice-president, are halibut fishermen who live in Saint Paul with their families.

All St. Paul Fishermen have equal access to the CBSFA CDQ halibut fishery. As is the case with all fisheries, some catch more and some catch less.

Anonymous said...

@ 2/25, 4:47...at least the St. Paulers are doing something to earn that money.

Anonymous said...

How does a group explain having $13 million in long term savings (Aleutians) and $60 million in the stock market (Bristol Bay)? While the other groups are not "doing something" with their stockpile, at least the Coastal group is providing benefits to residents. They stay away from real control and real work while benefitting a few. How does Robin Samuelson and Larry Cotter feel when they sleep at night knowing they are stockpiling money at the expense of most of the people who are supposed to be benefitting?

Anonymous said...

It's ALL pure B S.

The "traditional " fisheries were subsistence level from skin and bone kayaks.

The commercial fishing industry was developed by and continues to truly be driven by those horrible outsiders. You know the kind, the type that actually have the drive to get up and do something rather than wait for someone else to provide for them.

Get your ass up, hands to work and do something! Quit demanding more, more, more.