Trimming the fleet

Southeast Alaska salmon seiners are mounting yet another effort to reduce their ranks.

Recently, seiners were invited to submit bids to sell and permanently retire their state fishing permits.

A total of 37 bids came in, and the Southeast Revitalization Association board on May 24 voted to accept 36 of them.

The 36 accepted bids total just over $10.1 million, which is right around the amount of federal loan money available for the permit buyback.

What's next?

Probably after this fishing season, Southeast salmon seine permit holders — currently 315 of them — will vote in a referendum on whether the fleet agrees to shoulder the loan to complete the buyback.

In 2012, Southeast seiners approved a $13.1 million loan to remove 64 permits.

But in 2017, a vote to retire 22 more permits from the fishery failed.

Buyback fails

We told you in November that Southeast Alaska salmon seiners would vote on whether to buy out more permits.

So, how did the election turn out?

"We received 180 ballots of which 132 were for and the remaining 48 against," said Michael Sturtevant, with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

For the referendum to be successful, at least 158 of the 315 permit holders would have had to vote in favor, he said.

A notice with more details will be published soon in the Federal Register, Sturtevant said.

Another Southeast seine buyback?

Here's a federal notice indicating Southeast Alaska salmon seine permit holders soon will vote on whether to shoulder a $5.8 million loan to retire 22 permits from the fishery.

The voting period starts Dec. 13, the notice says.

In 2012, Southeast seiners approved a $13.1 million loan to remove 64 permits.

Currently, there are 315 permits in the fishery.

So far, a savvy deal for salmon seiners

Back in January, we told you how Southeast Alaska salmon seiners were considering another round of permit buybacks to further trim the fleet.

That's not going to happen, at least not this year, says this update from buyback organizers.

As for last year's buyback of 64 permits, the update indicates the fleet is having no problems at all repaying its federal loan.

In fact, the fleet is looking to reduce its 3 percent landings tax to only 1 percent.

Get your bids in, boys!

Looks like Southeast Alaska salmon seiners are pursuing another buyback to further reduce their ranks.

Here's a letter that went out to permit holders recently.

You'll recall that last year, the fleet bought and retired 64 permits using a $13.1 million federal loan.

The fishery currently has 315 permits.

For the record

Here is the official notice on the results of the Southeast Alaska salmon seine permit buyback referendum.

The notice names the holders of the 64 permits to be purchased and retired using a $13.1 million federal loan.

More details on permit buyback vote

Here are the results from the Southeast Alaska salmon seine permit buyback referendum.

The bottom line is 215 permit holders voted in favor of the buyback, well in excess of the 190-vote majority needed.

Salmon seiners reportedly OK permit buyback

The Southeast Alaska Seiners Association is reporting that voters have approved the permit buyback "by a relatively wide margin."

More details as soon as we can gather them.

A big day

We should know very soon now whether Southeast Alaska salmon seiners will go through with a permit buyback.

That's because 5 p.m. today is the deadline for permit holders to return their ballots to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

If a majority of the 379 ballots comes back in favor, 64 permits will be retired using a $13.1 million federal loan.

Seiners remaining in the fishery will then pay a tax of up to 3 percent on the dockside value of their catches to settle the loan over 40 years.

So, a big day. Any predictions how the vote will turn out? Deckboss doesn't dare.

Buyback balloting under way

The voting period has opened for the proposed Southeast Alaska salmon seine permit buyback program.

Permit holders eligible to vote were mailed ballots on Thursday.

Voters must return their ballots by April 30.

If a majority of the 379 ballots come back in favor, the government will proceed with a buyback of 64 permits at a cost of $13.1 million.

Seiners remaining in the fishery will then repay the money over time.

For more information, click here.

We're moving closer to Southeast seine buyback

This notice was published today in the Federal Register regarding the proposed buyback of Southeast Alaska salmon seine permits.

The notice lays out a schedule of public meetings to be held in Seattle, Petersburg, Ketchikan and Sitka, and lists people eligible to vote on whether to go forward with the buyback.

Southeast seine permit buyback, take two

For reasons previously noted here on Deckboss, organizers of a proposed buyback of Southeast Alaska salmon seine permits were forced to redo a reverse auction to determine those willing to sell out of the fishery.

That's been done now, and the organizers recently submitted a new capacity reduction plan for approval.

The plan contemplates using more than $13 million in federal loan funds to buy out 64 of the fishery's 379 state permits.

Owners of the 64 permits, and their bid amounts, are listed at the end of the 17-page plan. The bid amounts average $205,204 and range from $175,000 to $240,000.

If the National Marine Fisheries Service approves the plan, seiners will then vote on whether to carry it out.

An update on the Southeast seine buyback

When we last looked in on the proposed buyback of Southeast salmon seine permits, federal officials had just thrown a stick of dynamite in the hold by disqualifying the reverse auction organizers held to determine who would sell out.

Rather than just get mad and let the idea sink, buyback organizers went back to work. Over the past few weeks, they ran another auction by registered mail. Permit holders were to have their bids in by Dec. 28.

Deckboss hears the new buyback list looks very similar, in terms of permit numbers and dollar amounts, to the one generated with the first auction. The revised list will be submitted soon to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Of course, I'll be working to obtain the new list and provide everyone with further updates.

Who wants out of Southeast salmon seine fishery?

Last month we told you the National Marine Fisheries Service had published regulations for a potential buyback of Southeast Alaska salmon seine permits.

The fishery currently has 379 permits.

Naturally, Deckboss was wondering how many permits we might retire, and at what cost.

Well, here's a reduction plan buyback organizers submitted to NMFS.

They accepted bids on 67 permits, with the bids totaling $13.65 million.

The document lists the owners of the 67 permits, and bid amounts for each.

The idea of the buyback is to trim the number of permits, especially latent permits, to preserve the value of the fishery for those who remain.

With the high price of pink salmon seen the past couple of seasons, active seiners are worried new boats might pile back into the fishery and water down profits.

Thus, they say, the timing for the buyback is ideal.

The expectation is that permit holders soon will vote on whether to shoulder a federal loan to actually carry out the buyback.

A step closer to trimming Southeast seine fleet

The National Marine Fisheries Service today published regulations for a possible $23.5 million buyback of state permits in the Southeast Alaska purse seine salmon fishery.

'Politically dangerous'

Salmon seiners along the south Alaska Peninsula are sacrificing early fishing time rather than risk high chum bycatch while in pursuit of sockeye.

Here's a press release from the Aleutians East Borough.

Southeast seine buyback advances

The National Marine Fisheries Service today published this notice in the Federal Register regarding another proposed round of permit buybacks in the Southeast Alaska purse seine salmon fishery.

Path cleared for Southeast salmon seiner buyout

Gov. Sean Parnell today signed House Bill 365 into law.

The law gives the National Marine Fisheries Service access to confidential state records on the value of fish harvests.

Why is this important to the feds?

Because they want a way to verify the salmon industry promptly collects a landings tax to repay a big federal loan for retiring part of the Southeast Alaska seine fleet.

My understanding is the seiners could vote early next year on whether to shoulder a 40-year loan of up to $23.5 million. Fishermen and processors would pay it back with a 3 percent tax on the annual value of the catch.

Buyout organizers want to reduce the number of Southeast seine permit holders from the current 379 to as few as 260.

The aim is to create a more profitable fishery for those seiners remaining on the water.

Area M seiners stand down to save chums

Purse seiners in Sand Point and King Cove are voluntarily sitting out this week's salmon season opener as a way to avoid intercepting chums possibly bound for Western Alaska rivers.

Here's a press release from the Aleutians East Borough.

We saw the seiners stage a similar goodwill shutdown in 2005 when chums were running too thick in what's known as the Area M or False Pass fishery.

The seiners fear that netting too many chums while chasing their main quarry, sockeye, could result in ruinous fishing restrictions to protect Arctic-Yukon-Kuskokwim salmon runs.

So long, Seattle

I wrapped up my visit to the Emerald City today. Naturally, I spent considerable time walking around Fishermen's Terminal taking pictures, despite what seemed like gale conditions all week.

The harbor was full of seine boats targeting fall salmon in Puget Sound, plus a lot of longliners that I assume just finished up the halibut season.

Anyway, here are a few postcards, including one at the end showing a good activity for a really soggy Seattle day.