Meeting follow-up: Final agenda and selected presentations

Includes PDFs of PowerPoint presentations

Day 1—Thursday, September 21, 2006

8:15 – 9:00 am

Opening remarks

  • Paula Cullenberg, Alaska Sea Grant, University of Alaska Fairbanks
  • Doug Mecum, Acting Regional Administrator, Alaska Region, NOAA Fisheries

Keynote: Rural communities in a global marketplace—can fisheries be a part of community sustainability?

9:00 – 10:30 am

The value of fish, fishing and seafood to your community

Moderator: Mark Fina, North Pacific Fishery Management Council

Economic multiplier—how do Alaska's coastal communities benefit from their local fishing and seafood industries?

Panel 1: State and federal management view

  • Denby Lloyd, Director of Commercial Fisheries, Alaska Department of Fish & Game
  • Alan Austerman, Office of the Governor, and McDowell Group, Overview of the Alaska Seafood Development Strategy.
  • Stephanie Madsen, Chair, North Pacific Fishery Management Council

Panel 2: Local community view

  • Bruce Jones, Petersburg City Manager
  • Norm Wooten, Director, Kodiak Chamber of Commerce, and Chair, Kodiak Fisheries Committee
  • Freddie Christiansen, Old Harbor/Gulf Coastal Communities Coalition
10:30 – 10:45 am Break
10:45 am – 12:15 pm

How are Alaska's fishing communities changing?

Moderator: Sue Aspelund, Alaska Department of Fish & Game

Panel 3

12:15 – 1:30 pm Lunch (no host)
1:30 – 3:00 pm

Defining your community's goals for fish/fishing/seafood

Moderator: Nicole Kimball, North Pacific Fishery Management Council

Speaker: John Kearney, John F. Kearney & Associates, Nova Scotia, Canada, Process for communities to use in defining goals.

Panel 4: Models for community organization

3:00 – 3:15 pm Break
3:15 – 4:45 pm

Working group session—Community fishing goals

Break into small group sessions with a moderator to discuss the following issues:

  • How is fishing valuable to your community? What other aspects of the fishing industry are important to your community (i.e., charter, support industries, processing)?
  • With respect to fishing-related industries, what are your community's assets, needs, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats?
  • What are your community's goals? How can those goals be developed and shared within your community?
  • How can collective goals for a community be balanced (or coordinated) with individual residents' goals?
  • Are you willing to change to reach those goals? Are you willing to adapt goals to your community's strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities?
  • Are intergenerational transfers of assets, industries, and access important, and if so, how can they be facilitated?
  • Is some form of local management feasible in your community? What kind of organizational group would represent the community?
4:45 pm Wrap up groups and announce reception
5:30 – 7:00 pm

Reception and poster session

No-host bar and appetizers

Day 2—Friday, September 22, 2006

8:30 – 10:00 am

Working group reports

The spokesperson from each working group presents a brief summary (and/or PowerPoint presentation) of the working group issues or conclusions from Day 1.

10:00 – 10:15 am Break
10:15 am – 12:00 pm

Strategies for the next generation: Fishing as a long-term economic source for Alaska's coastal communities

Moderator: Kris Norosz, Icicle Seafoods

How can a community encourage individual fishing families to pass on their business locally? How can a community provide the tools to enable young people to make a living from fishing, processing, guiding, or otherwise benefiting from local fish resources? Are young people interested in fishing and seafood businesses as a career choice? What types of fishing-related employment opportunities are available?

Panel 5

  • Andy Ruby, Bristol Bay Economic Development Corporation, Keeping permits in your region—BBEDC operates a permit brokerage service and makes loans to local residents to purchase permits.
  • Eric Rosvold, Petersburg, and Al Burch, Kodiak, Graying of the fleet—community impacts from asset transfers.
  • Rachel Donkersloot, Ph.D. candidate, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Social change and the lifepaths of young Alaskans.
  • Linda Behnken, Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association, Designing limited-access commercial fishery management programs.
12:00 – 12:15 pm McKie Campbell, Commissioner, Alaska Department of Fish and Game
12:15 – 1:15 pm Lunch (no host)
1:15– 2:30 pm

Financial strategies for the future

Moderator: Chuck McCallum, Gulf of Alaska Coastal Communities Coalition

What tax incentives and strategies can communities use to encourage fish processing? What loan programs are available for individuals or communities to purchase quota share or permits? How to manage a fishing business? How can communities invest in infrastructure to support fishery-related businesses?

Panel 6

  • Lujean Fedotov, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community & Economic Development, Division of Investments
  • Glenn Haight, Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, Office of Fisheries Development
  • Lela Klingert, President, Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank
    • PowerPoint presentation: CFAB (PDF; 296 KB)
  • Bond Stewart, Southeast Alaska Business Banking Manager, Wells Fargo Bank Alaska
2:30 – 2:45 pm Break
2:45 – 4:15 pm

Working group session—Strategies for the next generation: Fishing as a long-term economic source

Break into small group sessions with a moderator to discuss the following issues:

  • What types of fishing-related employment opportunities are available in your community? How can you envision those opportunities changing the future (both changes in magnitude and type of opportunities—i.e., more charter jobs, less commercial jobs, more concentrated processing could lead to fewer management jobs but more line jobs)?
  • How can a community encourage fishing industry members to pass on their business locally?
  • Are young people interested in fishing and seafood businesses as a career choice? How can young people obtain the tools to make a living from fishing, processing, guiding, or otherwise benefiting from local fish resources? What role can or should a community play in this process?
  • What tax incentives and development strategies can (and should) communities use to encourage local participation in the fishing industry (including infrastructure development)?
  • What loan programs are available (or could be developed) for individuals or communities to purchase quota share or permits?
  • What resources are available (or could be made available) to help an individual manage a business in the fishing industry?
4:15– 5:00 pm

Wrap up and "open-mike" discussion

As a wrap-up to the conference, there will be an opportunity for attendees to comment on their thoughts and observations from the meeting. Facilitated by Paula Cullenberg, Alaska Sea Grant.