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In this Newsletter
Each month we spend countless hours going to bat for you against bad legislation, bad appointments, and bad regulations. And we are getting results. But our operating funds are currently very low and more than ever, we need your financial support to continue to be a strong voice throughout SouthEast. We understand that 2009 has been a tough year so we have lowered our fees and created a flexible payment program. Some very important meetings and organizational issues are coming up that require guide/lodge owner participation. Your membership dues will let SEAGO continue to be your representative as we face multiple key issues including: five upcoming Board of Fisheries meetings with the usual toxic proposals, a devastating halibut catch sharing plan, halibut Moratorium implementation, sport fish guide bill, the formation of the Alaska Fishing Association, and more. Please take a moment to renew your membership or join SEAGO. And because there is strength in numbers, ask a friend to join too!Please click here now to join or to renew your membership. Thanks in advance for your continued support of SEAGO.
Guides are receiving $400 “late logbook submission” citations for failure to comply with NMFS regulations even though they contradict ADF&G instructions. To-date more than $5,000 in fines have been reported. In each case the individual was in compliance with the ADF&G guidelines but not NMFS’ new rule. So far, NMFS has been unresponsive to requests for resolution. SEAGO is currently working through the system to seek a reasonable solution but we are prepared to escalate as necessary. See the SEAGO News Release at http://www.seagoalaska.org/newsletters/2009-08-21-alert.html. p.s. If you know of anyone who has been cited, please ask them to contact our Executive Director, John Blair at john@seagoalaska.org.
We have learned that the proposed federal Department of Commerce FY10 budget funding for the Pacific Salmon Treaty and other related mitigation programs may be severely cut by 60% or more. We have written to Senators Begich & Murkowski and Representative Young requesting them to intervene. Special thanks go out to Gordy Williams from ADF&G and Russell Thomas, SEAGO Board member, for their research and leadership in assembling this document. See a copy of the SEAGO letter at http://www.seagoalaska.org/documents/SEAGO-mitigation.pdf.
Below is a news release from ADF&G showing times and dates for upcoming public meetings to explain and solicit comments regarding proposed saltwater logbook changes for the 2010 season.
The Board of Fisheries has published the list of proposals to be considered at the State wide meeting next March. There are twenty nine proposals that will require our intervention. You can download a copy here: http://www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us/fishinfo/ In addition, they announced their meeting schedule for 2009-10 here: http://www.boards.adfg.state.ak.us/fishinfo/meetinfo/fcal.php Finally, we have heard that additional proposals may be submitted through the Agenda Change Request process.
Multiple meetings have been conducted over the past two months regarding the formation of the statewide fishermen’s organization, the Alaska Fishing Association. The goal of this initiative is to build upon the gains made during the last AK legislative session. We are currently working on bylaws and organization structure in monthly meetings. Many thanks to KRSA for taking the leadership role in the program.
From time to time we come across articles published on the internet that have some connection to Alaska fishing. Please forward any interesting articles you find to John Blair john@seagoalaska.org and we will publish them in our next newsletter. Note that some of the links are time sensitive and may be non-functional by the time you receive this newsletter; we apologize in advance. Finally, please understand that SEAGO does not necessarily agree the contents of any of these articles. Here are some stories from August:
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