Alaska Legislature Approves Task Force to Help Commercial Fishing Industry
Alaska legislators on May 12 approved the creation of a task force to make policy recommendations to help the state’s struggling commercial fishing industry.
It is to be modeled after another legislative task force created over 20 years ago to help the salmon industry at a time when harvesters were facing the impact of low prices and competition from farmed fish.
The resolution by the House Special Committee on Fisheries, and sponsored by the Alaska Senate Finance Committee, acknowledges the economic distress for harvesters in danger of being without markets and the number of seafood processing facilities for sale, closing or planning to shut down for a portion, or all of, the 2024 fishing season.
The task force is to be composed of eight members, with the state senate preside...