Juneau watch

Gov. Mike Dunleavy has vetoed Senate Bill 156 providing for a temporary state investment in the struggling Alaska Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank.

The bill garnered near unanimous support from legislators, and United Fishermen of Alaska also supported it.

The governor's fish vetoes

Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy yesterday signed the new state budget, but vetoed some significant spending.

A couple of fish-related items were affected.

First, Dunleavy chopped a $10 million appropriation for the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute to $5 million.

He also nixed $800,000 for completion of the South Peninsula king salmon genetics study.

Trump's boast

President Donald Trump recently vetoed S. 906, a bill that would have affected the California swordfish fishery and the Alaska halibut fishery.

Trump's veto message explains the action and also asserts:

My administration has done more for American fishermen than any president before me.

That's quite a statement considering the landmark actions of previous presidents. Some examples:

President Gerald Ford in 1976 signed what is today known as the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.

President Bill Clinton in 1996 signed the Sustainable Fisheries Act. And in 1998, he signed the American Fisheries Act into law.

President Ronald Reagan established the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone with a 1983 presidential proclamation.

Going farther back, President Andrew Johnson in 1867 signed the treaty for the purchase of Alaska, which has proven to be a pretty good place for fishing.

Obama administration doesn't like Young's bill

The Obama administration last week issued a statement indicating Alaska Congressman Don Young's rewrite of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act might not pass muster with the president.

If Obama were presented with Young's legislation (H.R. 1335), "his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill," the statement says.

The Magnuson-Stevens Act is the foremost federal law guiding management of the nation's commercial fisheries.

Young says his legislation would reauthorize and "strengthen" the act.

But the administration statement says in part:

H.R. 1335 would interfere with the tremendous success achieved in rebuilding overfished fisheries by setting rebuilding targets that are not based on sound, credible science, and that unnecessarily extend the time to rebuild fisheries. In making these changes, H.R. 1335 introduces a series of ambiguous provisions that could improperly extend rebuilding periods, delaying the significant economic and environmental benefits of rebuilt fisheries to both fishermen and the Nation as a whole.

Young's bill passed the House Natural Resources Committee on April 30.

Quite a fishy haul in state capital budget

Gov. Sean Parnell last week signed the fiscal 2012 capital budget, which totals more than $2.7 billion. Deckboss took a look and found quite a few items of interest to the fishing industry — items that survived the governor's veto pen. Here's a list, starting with the state department affiliated with each project.

• Commerce — Bristol Bay Borough, port expansion, $2,000,000

• Commerce — Cordova, breakwater extension and boat ramp, $1,400,000

• Fish and Game — Cordova, dock and uplands improvements, $650,000

• Commerce — Egegik, dock repair, $55,000

• Commerce — Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Mariculture Research Facility, $300,000

• Commerce — Kodiak Island Borough, Anton Larsen dock, $2,000,000

• Commerce — Kodiak Maritime Museum, Harbor Gateway Project, $298,000

• Commerce — Metlakatla Indian Community, Annette Island Packing Co. freezer expansion, $2,000,000

• Commerce — Prince of Wales Island, Alaska Oyster Cooperative, upgrade existing building to a shellfish processing facility, $106,500

• Commerce — Seward, Alutiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery upgrade, $250,000

• Commerce — Seward, CDQ fishing fleet relocation study, $400,000

• Commerce — Wrangell, boat yard improvements, $3,700,000

• Commerce — Yukon River Drainage Fisheries Association, Yukon River Chinook salmon management plan, $300,000

• Commerce — Alaska Sustainable Salmon Fund program, $1,030,000

• Fish and Game — Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund, $12,000,000

• Fish and Game — Pacific Salmon Treaty Chinook fishery mitigation, $7,500,000

• Commerce — Celebrate Seafood Inc., advancing a National Seafood Marketing Association, $200,000

• Transportation — Feasibility study, joint moorage facility for Alaska Marine Highway System ferries and NOAA research vessels, $500,000

• Public Safety — Marine fisheries patrol improvements, $2,000,000

• Fish and Game — Westward Region Didson sonar purchase, $105,000

• Commerce — Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association, Trail Lakes Hatchery maintenance and upgrade, $865,000

• Commerce — Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association, Tustumena Lake smolt out-migration monitoring, $45,000

• Commerce — Cook Inlet Aquaculture Association, Tutka Bay Hatchery maintenance and upgrade, $591,000

• Commerce — Douglas Island Pink and Chum Inc., Snettisham Hatchery maintenance and upgrade, $1,250,000

• Commerce — Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association, Kitoi Bay Hatchery maintenance and upgrade, $1,308,000

• Commerce — Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association, lake nutrient enrichment project, $720,000

• Commerce — Kodiak Regional Aquaculture Association, Pillar Creek Hatchery maintenance and upgrade, $767,000

• Commerce — Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association, net pens and hatchery deferred maintenance, $707,800

• Commerce — Northern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association, Hidden Falls Hatchery maintenance and upgrade, $1,044,000

• Commerce — Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., nets pens and hatchery deferred maintenance, $426,000

• Commerce — Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., Cannery Creek hatchery maintenance and upgrade, $2,224,000

• Commerce — Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., Gulkana Hatchery maintenance and upgrade, $838,000

• Commerce — Prince William Sound Aquaculture Corp., Main Bay Hatchery maintenance and upgrade, $2,113,000

• Commerce — Southern Southeast Regional Aquaculture Association, net pens and hatchery deferred maintenance, $400,000