Bill Brown, of Juneau, has resigned from the Alaska Board of Fisheries, the governor's office confirms.
First appointed to the board by former Gov. Sarah Palin in 2008, Brown's current term was due to expire on June 30, 2014.
That's all we know at this point. Deckboss will try to get more details.
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13 comments:
Great News!
maybe he got tired of sensible, well thought out solutions never getting in the way of a bad decision.
Juneau’s Brown resigns from Alaska Board of Fisheries
By Casey Kelly
Posted on January 8, 2013 at 5:16 pm
Bill Brown of Juneau has resigned from the Alaska Board of Fisheries with nearly a year and a half remaining in his term.
The news was first reported Tuesday by Deckboss blogger Wesley Loy.
Brown says he submitted his letter of resignation to Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell on Monday. He says “personal reasons” and “personalities” played into his decision, but declined to be more specific.
“I did not want to resign,” he said. “But I spent about a month thinking about it. I talked to the commissioner. I talked to other board members about it. It was a decision I made.”
Brown says he was not asked to step down, and that some people at Fish and Game wanted him to stay on the board. He also says health concerns did not play a role in his decision.
He was first appointed to the Board of Fisheries in 2008 by then-Governor Sarah Palin. He was reappointed by Governor Sean Parnell in 2011, and his term was due to expire June 30, 2014.
The seven-member board of fisheries is responsible for setting seasons, bag limits, gear restrictions, and policy for subsistence, commercial, sport and personal use fisheries in state waters.
Brown says he’d like to stay involved in fisheries policy in some capacity.
“I’m passionate about fisheries in the state. I’m passionate about conservation,” Brown said. “I’m also passionate about the fact that people make their lives that way. That’s what they do for a living. It’s their lifestyle and I respect that. So, yeah, I’ll stay involved.”
Brown makes his living in the fisheries support industry. His business, Taku Reel Repair, services equipment for commercial and sport fishermen. He also has a doctorate in economics from the University of Colorado, and has taught college economics classes, including at the University of Alaska Southeast.
Parnell Spokeswoman Sharon Leighow says the governor has 30 days to make an appointment and is currently soliciting applicants. The appointment is subject to confirmation by the Alaska Legislature. http://www.ktoo.org/2013/01/08/juneaus-brown-resigns-from-alaska-board-of-fisheries/
Brown had missed a meeting or two because of sickness and had lost much of his effectiveness. He was a numbers guy but had only superficial knowledge of fisheries. He never spent any time with commercial fishermen in an attempt to understand their needs. He was more interested in protecting his fish reel repair business than he was in protecting the resource. Typical of most who were in academia, he thought he was the smartest guy in the room. Truth be known the Fish board is better off without him. Let's hope that Parnell gets a person familiar with fisheries and not just another Bob Penny pick.
I say; good riddance! Brown accused our membership of breaking the law by not reporting Chinook catch when he had not a single piece of evidence to back up his accusation. We asked that cowardly chairman Johnstone to sanction Brown, but he backed him up. Brown could not care less about the commercial fishermen and their family needs. The big question is who will replace him. Now, if we can only get the judge to go.
I appreciated Brown's analysis and am disappointed to see him go. While I certainly did not agree with many of his conclusions, at least they were well thought out and his methods were consistent.
Brown was definitely off base when he questioned the department's projected harvest of 29,000 tons in last year's Sitka herring fishery.
He said the catch limit modeling by the department would lead to estimates that were too high and unsustainable.
He thought a better estimate would be around 15,000 tons or so.
He was way off. About 12,000 tons turned at season's end. Can't have someone sitting on the board who is so far off on his critiques, especially if he is a numbers guy.
Brown's resignation is a symptom of a larger problem, but his resignation does not deal with that problem.
What do you think is the larger problem? What is causing the various stocks of salmon and stocks of dung crabs to be falling off the cliff? what is causing the pacific herring to go away in so many areas? Could it possibly be over fishing? Could it be that neither the Fish Board or the the Dept. have the courage to make the hard decisions? Could it be possible that politics plays way too much of a role in Board and Dept. decisions? Of course not! It is an ocean event, or maybe it is a trawl fishery problem. Whatever: the comeback is "it's not our fault" What is your take 2:03?
Can anyone tell me of any commercial fishery proposal that Brown voted for when there was a competing sports fishing proposal. Is that being impartial and protecting the resource? Is that taking into consideration all of the people that really depend on the resource, and not just the chosen few who are wealthy enough to have homes on the Kenai? The puppet strings went all the way up to KRSA and it was Penny who was pulling them.. Just watch and see who is promoted to replace Brown. It will be a guy who will fit right into KRSA's back pocket.
The problem, 4:55, lies in this question: why did Brown quit? The KTOO story this morning hints at it.
Larry Edfelt? Really? The Crypt Keeper the best that SE can come up with for this vacancy? Go back to the drawing board, folks.
"The puppet strings went all the way up to KRSA?"
And their proposal for March?
PROPOSAL 225 - 5 AAC 39.2XX. Policy for the implementation of....
"It has been our observation that the process lacked consistently solid goals and objectives."
When your puppet strings have no relationship to any form of solid observation.
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