The budget for Alaska’s Commercial Fisheries Division is facing no cuts for the upcoming fiscal year, assuming the current numbers make it through the Legislature.
Print article The budget for Alaska’s Commercial Fisheries Division won’t be cut for the upcoming fiscal year, assuming the current numbers make it through the Legislature. “The governor’s proposed budget is at about $72.8 million, which is a slight increase from the FY21 approved budget. And most of that increase is due to our personnel services, cost of living increases and things like that that are funded by the administration generally. And also from some additional federal funds for training and things like that. So we’re looking pretty good compared to past years,” said Sam Rabung, director of the Commercial Fisheries Division, the largest within the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which employs just over 640 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers.
The budget for Alaskaâs commercial fisheries division is facing no cuts for the upcoming fiscal year, assuming the current numbers make it through the Legislature.
âThe governorâs proposed budget is at about $72.8 million, which is a slight increase from the FY21 approved budget. And most of that increase is due to our personnel services, cost of living increases and things like that, that are funded by the administration generally. And also from some additional federal funds for training and things like that. So weâre looking pretty good compared to past years,â said Sam Rabung, director of the commercial fisheries division, the largest within the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which employs just over 640 full-time, part-time and seasonal workers.
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But some scientists say they’re worried about what hatchery crab and other species could do to natural populations.
Throughout Alaska’s waters, shellfish populations have been in decline for decades decimated by overfishing in the 1980s and by changing ocean environments in the years since.
Bristol Bay’s world-renown sockeye salmon fishery was a bright spot in a dismal statewide salmon harvest last year. But its red king crab fishery is in steep decline.
“There’s quite a lot of concern that this [Bristol Bay red king crab] fishery could close as early as this year,” says Ginny Eckert, a professor of fisheries at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Eckert spoke at a legislative hearing earlier this month in favor of a bill that supporters say could help re-animate shellfish populations statewide, including in Bristol Bay.
Proposed bill would allow shellfish populations to be enhanced with hatchery stock kstk.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kstk.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.