Juneau watch

Rep. Nellie Jimmie, D-Toksook Bay, today introduced House Bill 125 to reform how the governor appoints members of the Alaska Board of Fisheries.

The bill specifies, among other things, that the governor shall appoint "two members who represent subsistence fishing, from a list of four names submitted by the Alaska Federation of Natives."

The next salmon jet

Here's the story from Alaska Airlines.

Groundfish fisheries challenged

The Association of Village Council Presidents and Tanana Chiefs Conference have sued the National Marine Fisheries Service in federal court, challenging the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries.

The 33-page lawsuit cites trawl bycatch of salmon and "rapid and unprecedented" ecosystem change.

A bigger council?

Alaska's new congresswoman, Democrat Mary Peltola, is proposing an expansion of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

The council currently has 11 voting members, including three from Washington state, one from Oregon, and the rest from Alaska.

Peltola this week offered an amendment calling for "adding two additional Alaska Native tribal seats" to the council.

Stedman explains need for sea otter bounty

Here's a sponsor statement from Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, on his sea otter control bill.

Senate Bill 60 would have the state pay Alaska Natives a $100 bounty for every sea otter taken lawfully under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Stedman says the fast-growing population of voracious sea otters threatens the future of dive and crab fisheries in Southeast Alaska, jeopardizing hundreds of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in economic activity.

The bill is up for a hearing at 3:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Senate Resources Committee.

Four council seats for Natives only?

Check out Senate Joint Resolution 29, introduced a few days ago in the Alaska Legislature.

It asks the state's congressional delegation to pursue a change in federal law to add four new voting members to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

These four couldn't be just anybody.

The resolution says the seats must be filled with "members of federally recognized tribes or Alaska Native organizations who are not employed by a community development quota program or the pollock industry."

The problem with the present council, the resolution says, is that it's "dominated by state and industry voices that do not advocate or represent the subsistence needs of Alaska's rural tribal peoples."

The council currently has 11 voting members from Alaska, Oregon and Washington.

So four new Native seats obviously would form a potentially powerful voting bloc.

No individual legislator's name appears on the resolution as sponsor. Rather, it was introduced by the Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee, the chairman of which is Sen. Donny Olson, D-Nome.

The resolution hasn't advanced since it was introduced on Feb. 26.

Of course, legislative resolutions don't carry the same weight as bills to actually change the law.