Utne Reader project June 98---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- BRISTOL BAY ATTACHMENT July 14, 1997 MURKOWSKI ASKS FEDERAL AGENCIES TO PREPARE FOR ECONOMIC DISASTER, IF BRISTOL BAY FISH RUNS DON'T APPEAR WASHINGTON -- Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski today asked officials of both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration to begin preparations to declare an economic disaster in the Bristol Bay region, should weather conditions continue to prevent the annual Bristol Bay red salmon run from materializing. Murkowski, in letters to James Lee Witt, director of FEMA, and to Aida Alvarez, administration of the SBA, said that the Bristol Bay red salmon run normally provides up to one-third of the value of all salmon caught in Alaska. "This year's total sockeye salmon returns to Bristol Bay were anticipated to reach about 36 million fish. Regrettably, this has not been the case.... The salmon returns have been disastrously low. Many processing plants are shutting down for lack of fish and total harvests will not exceed, and likely won't reach, 17 million fish. For the thousands of independent fishing captains, crew members and processing workers affected by this failure, many of whom are residents of local villages with few other resources, this is a disaster of the first order that will have an extreme impact," said Murkowski. He said that while the cause of the apparent fish run failure is not fully known, it is believed that low water levels in area streams because of lack of rainfall and that high marine and fresh water temperatures caused by the warmer than usual summer are at fault. Murkowski, based on requests from constituents, asked that both agencies take immediate steps to begin working with the State of Alaska to evaluate the extent of the natural resource and the potential need for economic disaster aid in the region. "It is my hope that you will be able in this way to lay the groundwork for a more rapid decision in the event that the State government finds it necessary to request Federal disaster, unemployment, or other available forms of assistance, as I believe is quite likely," said Murkowski. Murkowski sent the request as Governor Tony Knowles toured the Bristol Bay region, the first step involved in formally seeking a federal disaster proclamation for the area. Such a proclamation would enable residents to apply for low-interest federal disaster aid/loans. Other Press Releases -- keith sutherland (higsu@norshore.net), November 15, 1998. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BRISTOL BAY ATTACHMENT (2) Copyright ) 1997 The Seattle Times Company Tuesday, Oct. 28, 1997 Fish forecasts: tricky business by Diedtra Henderson Seattle Times staff reporter In 1958, a University of Washington graduate student headed to Neah Bay for a summer job and his first face-to-face encounter with coho. Up till then, all that Don Rogers, who was born and reared in Los Angeles, knew about salmon was that it came in cans. All summer he peered at the goop scooped from coho carcasses, to learn about the coho's life and growth from the contents of its stomach. Was the task icky? Rogers waggles a hand, his fingers chopping the air in a 50-50 sort of answer. "That was my first introduction to fisheries work," Rogers said. "It wasn't my idea of fun - initially." At month's end, Rogers, now 65, will step away from a full-time job as research scientist at the UW Fisheries Research Institute. Over 39 years, Rogers moved from doing basic salmon research into a public servant's role, helping to bring a voice of reason to ease tension between various players in the salmon industry. He is best known, perhaps, for twice-yearly forecasts he's issued since 1969 on the number of sockeye expected to return to Alaska's premier fishing region, Bristol Bay. Annual Bristol Bay research visits and frequent radio interviews on its local radio station, KDLG, have made Rogers a household name there. He's called "The Voice of Port Moller," the research station where he and staff gather data for the in-season portion of his forecast. Anomaly: a disastrous season Year in, year out Rogers' was a strong, certain voice with forecasts that were mostly accurate - his margin of error averages roughly 25 percent - until this year, when The Voice of Port Moller faltered. Last fall, Rogers estimated a salmon run of 34 million fish with roughly 25 million salmon caught. During the summer in Alaska, he fine-tuned that catch estimate to 17 million fish. The larger-than- average anticipated run turned out to be a smaller-than-average run of 19 million fish, with a catch of only 12.3 million sockeye. Never before has Rogers been so far off. But few recall Bristol Bay experiencing a summer quite like the summer of 1997, with its tropically warm water temperatures, stubbornly calm sunny days and rock-bottom river levels. "I hope it doesn't happen again," Rogers said of the abnormal summer. Stepping into the tiny office that Rogers occupies gives a glimpse of how he is said to conduct business: an old-fashioned, nuts-and-bolts way with few frills and little mystery. A fading regional map on one wall shows the expansive bay and rivers with names like Ugashik, Nushagak, Egegik and Naknek, where the sockeye run. On the opposite wall is a surreal photograph of exposed salmon, only their bellies safely underwater as they frantically swish up a low stream. Fraying denim binders fill his shelves - 1962 is written on the side of one - and on his desk sit a hand-crank pencil sharpener and a rectangular metal ancestor of today's Rolodex. True, all of the statistics that he uses for his forecasts are entered into workhorse computers. But Rogers sounds wistful as he notes how conversations have, over time, also gone modern, evolving from face-to-face encounters to voice-mail exchanges and group e-mail messages. "I prefer people to electronics," he said. "Most e-mail is not to me. It's to `everybody.' I often get into the habit of deleting these `everybody' messages. . . . That isn't what my parents named me, `everybody.' " He summarizes his career with succinct crispness and a touch of modesty that those who know him say is characteristic: "I feel I've done my job and I take satisfaction with that." Long experience, a `gut feeling' The past few weeks of his tenure have been spent like every other October, sorting through statistics for his fall forecast, a report subsidized by roughly half of the processors that buy Bristol Bay salmon. Fishermen and processors use the early estimates to guide decisions on how many people to hire and how many boats to prepare for the season. If the forecast were a recipe, its most important ingredients would be estimates of the number of baby salmon that went to sea in the previous two springs, how many salmon returned the previous summer at younger ages. Rogers rattles the correlations on return rates of salmon of varying ages with a familiarity that comes from nearly 30 years of working with the numbers. But the job his successor will inherit - no replacement has been named, and Rogers has asked to work part-time during the transition - is more than just adding and subtracting. Just as a novice and an experienced cook could line up the same ingredients and come up with vastly varying dishes, his sockeye forecasts are heavy portions of data mixed with bits of Rogers' personal experience. "A significant amount of the forecast is based on my gut feeling," he said, dropping his hand on his heart. And that develops from returning to remote parts of Alaska that remain "miles and miles and miles of no people" for the annual in-season forecast. Millions of dollars at stake The sockeye of his interest funnel as they approach Bristol Bay, creating a concentrated channel of fish 40 miles wide. From mid-June to mid-July, research crews at Port Moller fish in a set pattern, moving their gill nets to specific locations on the roiling sea and fishing for an hour. During a large run, they might catch 200 fish in an hour. During a small run, that number might dwindle to 15 to 20 fish. This year on dead-flat seas, research crews caught large numbers of small fish. It takes sockeye a week to swim from Port Moller to Bristol Bay. But the large run expected this year never materialized. The run was the worst in 20 years; the 15 million missing fish are worth an estimated $60 million. Fishermen in tiny villages like New Stuyahok and Koliganek barely caught enough fish to cover expenses. They don't have enough money left to make boat payments or buy winter fuel. The Alaskan government wants a state of emergency declared and has applied for $10 million in federal subsistence aid, said Bob King, press secretary for Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles. "These forecasts are not just trivial. Business decisions involving literally millions of dollars are based on the scientific assessment of these runs. Don knows that," said King, who got to know Rogers during the 17 years King was news director for KDLG, an AM station that covers Bristol Bay. "And I'm sure he realizes that because of whatever happened, it ended up costing a lot of people a lot of money." Some blame him for huge losses More than anyone else, Rogers wanted to know how the forecasts could go so wrong. "My goal is to be right," he said. Looking at conditions in Alaska from last winter to this summer, he now theorizes that unusually warm and hostile waters caused significant sockeye deaths. Stressed fish slowed by warm waters got eaten by predators or died and dropped to the ocean bottom. Rogers' testimony was faxed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to bolster the aid request, King said. Yet Rogers' name is hissed in other quarters as fishermen appear ready to flay the messenger for delivering the wrong information. They suffered doubly: By preparing for a larger-than-average run, fishermen increased their expenses. And then fish prices dipped in response to the optimistic forecasts. "His indexes this year were so far off, you wonder exactly what kind of science he's conducting," said David Harsila, of the Alaska Independent Fishermen's Marketing Association, which represents 400 fishermen who hold permits to fish at Bristol Bay. "If that's science, we don't need science. I think we could predict quite as well without it." Rogers maintains this summer was a once-in-50-year blip "not something that says, `Forget the whole system of forecasting.' " And King, the Alaska press secretary, thinks Rogers' reputation will survive the assault. "He's a real personable guy and I always thought he had a real nice, blunt style that worked well in Bristol Bay," King said. "I think, in the long run, his reputation is going to stand - certainly among the people who have a lot of experience in Bristol Bay and, especially, among his peers." Diedtra Henderson's phone message number is 206-464-8259. Her e-mail address is: dhen-new@seatimes.com Today's News Personal Technology Datebook: things to do and see Political News Education Classifieds About the Times Copyright ) 1997 The Seattle Times Company | Permission requests and information Answered by keithsutherland (higsu@norshore.net) from 205.219.135.13 on November 15, 1998. DELETE EDIT bulk delete -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BRISTOL BAY ATTACHMENT (3) NOAA 97-R167 Contact: Scott Smullen FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11/06/97 NMFS DECLARES COMMERCIAL FISHERIES FAILURE IN ALASKA'S BRISTOL BAY/KUSKOKWIM SALMON FISHERY In response to the record low returns of salmon in the Bristol Bay and Kuskokwim region of Alaska, the National Marine Fisheries Service today declared a commercial fishery failure, in the region. This declaration is designed to assist commercial fishermen and small fishery-dependent businesses that have sustained heavy uninsured losses, the National Marine Fisheries Service said. For the first time, the Commerce Department has used its legislative authority under section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act to declare a commercial fishery failure in response to a request from a governor. Alaska Governor Tony Knowles formally requested the declaration under the Act in August after the salmon runs projected for the two areas were off by 78 percent. The low salmon runs caused the value of the fishery to drop nearly $100 million from recent averages. This declaration will allow the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to provide funds appropriated for this purpose to the state of Alaska to assess the economic and social effects of the commercial fishery failure or to support an activity that would restore the fishery or prevent a similar failure in the future and to assist a fishing community affected by such failure. The Act limits the federal share of the cost of any relief activity to 75 percent. Funds to support any disaster relief have not yet been appropriated, and currently there are none available. In recognition of the urgency of the state's request, NMFS made the finding today in advance of developing interpretive guidelines under the Act. NMFS has formed a task force to develop regulatory guidelines by which to guide future disaster requests. The commercial fishery failure occurred as a result of the inordinately poor runs of sockeye and chum salmon in the Bristol Bay and Kuskokwim River areas. According to data supplied by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the 1997 harvest of 12.3 million sockeye salmon was the lowest catch since 1978. In 1996, the fishery harvested 29.6 million sockeye from a run totaling 36.9 million fish, which was a record year. The harvest of chum salmon fell to 307,000 fish from an average harvest of 1.2 million fish. According to the state, about 790 small businesses in Alaska have suffered substantial economic injury due to the fishery failure. According to officials, the exact cause of the unexpectedly low returns of salmon is impossible to pinpoint, but the evidence points to a marine ecological event. Unusually warm conditions prevailed in the region this summer. Surface water temperatures ranged considerably warmer than those previously observed. Under Section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act NMFS can declare a commercial fisheries disaster if requested to do so by a governor, or at any time the agency decides to do so. NMFS must determine that a fishery resource disaster resulted from either natural causes, man- made causes beyond the control of fishery mangers, or undetermined causes. Further, if a commercial fishery failure occurred, then it must have resulted from the fishery resource disaster. . Answered by keith sutherland (higsu@norshore.net) from 205.219.135.13 on November 15, 1998. DELETE EDIT bulk delete BRISTOL BAY ATTACHMENT (2) Copyright ) 1997 The Seattle Times Company Tuesday, Oct. 28, 1997 Fish forecasts: tricky business by Diedtra Henderson Seattle Times staff reporter In 1958, a University of Washington graduate student headed to Neah Bay for a summer job and his first face-to-face encounter with coho. Up till then, all that Don Rogers, who was born and reared in Los Angeles, knew about salmon was that it came in cans. All summer he peered at the goop scooped from coho carcasses, to learn about the coho's life and growth from the contents of its stomach. Was the task icky? Rogers waggles a hand, his fingers chopping the air in a 50-50 sort of answer. "That was my first introduction to fisheries work," Rogers said. "It wasn't my idea of fun - initially." At month's end, Rogers, now 65, will step away from a full-time job as research scientist at the UW Fisheries Research Institute. Over 39 years, Rogers moved from doing basic salmon research into a public servant's role, helping to bring a voice of reason to ease tension between various players in the salmon industry. He is best known, perhaps, for twice-yearly forecasts he's issued since 1969 on the number of sockeye expected to return to Alaska's premier fishing region, Bristol Bay. Annual Bristol Bay research visits and frequent radio interviews on its local radio station, KDLG, have made Rogers a household name there. He's called "The Voice of Port Moller," the research station where he and staff gather data for the in-season portion of his forecast. Anomaly: a disastrous season Year in, year out Rogers' was a strong, certain voice with forecasts that were mostly accurate - his margin of error averages roughly 25 percent - until this year, when The Voice of Port Moller faltered. Last fall, Rogers estimated a salmon run of 34 million fish with roughly 25 million salmon caught. During the summer in Alaska, he fine-tuned that catch estimate to 17 million fish. The larger-than- average anticipated run turned out to be a smaller-than-average run of 19 million fish, with a catch of only 12.3 million sockeye. Never before has Rogers been so far off. But few recall Bristol Bay experiencing a summer quite like the summer of 1997, with its tropically warm water temperatures, stubbornly calm sunny days and rock-bottom river levels. "I hope it doesn't happen again," Rogers said of the abnormal summer. Stepping into the tiny office that Rogers occupies gives a glimpse of how he is said to conduct business: an old-fashioned, nuts-and-bolts way with few frills and little mystery. A fading regional map on one wall shows the expansive bay and rivers with names like Ugashik, Nushagak, Egegik and Naknek, where the sockeye run. On the opposite wall is a surreal photograph of exposed salmon, only their bellies safely underwater as they frantically swish up a low stream. Fraying denim binders fill his shelves - 1962 is written on the side of one - and on his desk sit a hand-crank pencil sharpener and a rectangular metal ancestor of today's Rolodex. True, all of the statistics that he uses for his forecasts are entered into workhorse computers. But Rogers sounds wistful as he notes how conversations have, over time, also gone modern, evolving from face-to-face encounters to voice-mail exchanges and group e-mail messages. "I prefer people to electronics," he said. "Most e-mail is not to me. It's to `everybody.' I often get into the habit of deleting these `everybody' messages. . . . That isn't what my parents named me, `everybody.' " He summarizes his career with succinct crispness and a touch of modesty that those who know him say is characteristic: "I feel I've done my job and I take satisfaction with that." Long experience, a `gut feeling' The past few weeks of his tenure have been spent like every other October, sorting through statistics for his fall forecast, a report subsidized by roughly half of the processors that buy Bristol Bay salmon. Fishermen and processors use the early estimates to guide decisions on how many people to hire and how many boats to prepare for the season. If the forecast were a recipe, its most important ingredients would be estimates of the number of baby salmon that went to sea in the previous two springs, how many salmon returned the previous summer at younger ages. Rogers rattles the correlations on return rates of salmon of varying ages with a familiarity that comes from nearly 30 years of working with the numbers. But the job his successor will inherit - no replacement has been named, and Rogers has asked to work part-time during the transition - is more than just adding and subtracting. Just as a novice and an experienced cook could line up the same ingredients and come up with vastly varying dishes, his sockeye forecasts are heavy portions of data mixed with bits of Rogers' personal experience. "A significant amount of the forecast is based on my gut feeling," he said, dropping his hand on his heart. And that develops from returning to remote parts of Alaska that remain "miles and miles and miles of no people" for the annual in-season forecast. Millions of dollars at stake The sockeye of his interest funnel as they approach Bristol Bay, creating a concentrated channel of fish 40 miles wide. From mid-June to mid-July, research crews at Port Moller fish in a set pattern, moving their gill nets to specific locations on the roiling sea and fishing for an hour. During a large run, they might catch 200 fish in an hour. During a small run, that number might dwindle to 15 to 20 fish. This year on dead-flat seas, research crews caught large numbers of small fish. It takes sockeye a week to swim from Port Moller to Bristol Bay. But the large run expected this year never materialized. The run was the worst in 20 years; the 15 million missing fish are worth an estimated $60 million. Fishermen in tiny villages like New Stuyahok and Koliganek barely caught enough fish to cover expenses. They don't have enough money left to make boat payments or buy winter fuel. The Alaskan government wants a state of emergency declared and has applied for $10 million in federal subsistence aid, said Bob King, press secretary for Alaska Gov. Tony Knowles. "These forecasts are not just trivial. Business decisions involving literally millions of dollars are based on the scientific assessment of these runs. Don knows that," said King, who got to know Rogers during the 17 years King was news director for KDLG, an AM station that covers Bristol Bay. "And I'm sure he realizes that because of whatever happened, it ended up costing a lot of people a lot of money." Some blame him for huge losses More than anyone else, Rogers wanted to know how the forecasts could go so wrong. "My goal is to be right," he said. Looking at conditions in Alaska from last winter to this summer, he now theorizes that unusually warm and hostile waters caused significant sockeye deaths. Stressed fish slowed by warm waters got eaten by predators or died and dropped to the ocean bottom. Rogers' testimony was faxed to the Federal Emergency Management Agency to bolster the aid request, King said. Yet Rogers' name is hissed in other quarters as fishermen appear ready to flay the messenger for delivering the wrong information. They suffered doubly: By preparing for a larger-than-average run, fishermen increased their expenses. And then fish prices dipped in response to the optimistic forecasts. "His indexes this year were so far off, you wonder exactly what kind of science he's conducting," said David Harsila, of the Alaska Independent Fishermen's Marketing Association, which represents 400 fishermen who hold permits to fish at Bristol Bay. "If that's science, we don't need science. I think we could predict quite as well without it." Rogers maintains this summer was a once-in-50-year blip "not something that says, `Forget the whole system of forecasting.' " And King, the Alaska press secretary, thinks Rogers' reputation will survive the assault. "He's a real personable guy and I always thought he had a real nice, blunt style that worked well in Bristol Bay," King said. "I think, in the long run, his reputation is going to stand - certainly among the people who have a lot of experience in Bristol Bay and, especially, among his peers." Diedtra Henderson's phone message number is 206-464-8259. Her e-mail address is: dhen-new@seatimes.com Today's News Personal Technology Datebook: things to do and see Political News Education Classifieds About the Times Copyright ) 1997 The Seattle Times Company | Permission requests and information Answered by keithsutherland (higsu@norshore.net) from 205.219.135.13 on November 15, 1998. DELETE EDIT bulk delete -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BRISTOL BAY ATTACHMENT (3) NOAA 97-R167 Contact: Scott Smullen FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 11/06/97 NMFS DECLARES COMMERCIAL FISHERIES FAILURE IN ALASKA'S BRISTOL BAY/KUSKOKWIM SALMON FISHERY In response to the record low returns of salmon in the Bristol Bay and Kuskokwim region of Alaska, the National Marine Fisheries Service today declared a commercial fishery failure, in the region. This declaration is designed to assist commercial fishermen and small fishery-dependent businesses that have sustained heavy uninsured losses, the National Marine Fisheries Service said. For the first time, the Commerce Department has used its legislative authority under section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act to declare a commercial fishery failure in response to a request from a governor. Alaska Governor Tony Knowles formally requested the declaration under the Act in August after the salmon runs projected for the two areas were off by 78 percent. The low salmon runs caused the value of the fishery to drop nearly $100 million from recent averages. This declaration will allow the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to provide funds appropriated for this purpose to the state of Alaska to assess the economic and social effects of the commercial fishery failure or to support an activity that would restore the fishery or prevent a similar failure in the future and to assist a fishing community affected by such failure. The Act limits the federal share of the cost of any relief activity to 75 percent. Funds to support any disaster relief have not yet been appropriated, and currently there are none available. In recognition of the urgency of the state's request, NMFS made the finding today in advance of developing interpretive guidelines under the Act. NMFS has formed a task force to develop regulatory guidelines by which to guide future disaster requests. The commercial fishery failure occurred as a result of the inordinately poor runs of sockeye and chum salmon in the Bristol Bay and Kuskokwim River areas. According to data supplied by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the 1997 harvest of 12.3 million sockeye salmon was the lowest catch since 1978. In 1996, the fishery harvested 29.6 million sockeye from a run totaling 36.9 million fish, which was a record year. The harvest of chum salmon fell to 307,000 fish from an average harvest of 1.2 million fish. According to the state, about 790 small businesses in Alaska have suffered substantial economic injury due to the fishery failure. According to officials, the exact cause of the unexpectedly low returns of salmon is impossible to pinpoint, but the evidence points to a marine ecological event. Unusually warm conditions prevailed in the region this summer. Surface water temperatures ranged considerably warmer than those previously observed. Under Section 312(a) of the Magnuson-Stevens Act NMFS can declare a commercial fisheries disaster if requested to do so by a governor, or at any time the agency decides to do so. NMFS must determine that a fishery resource disaster resulted from either natural causes, man- made causes beyond the control of fishery mangers, or undetermined causes. Further, if a commercial fishery failure occurred, then it must have resulted from the fishery resource disaster. . Answered by keith sutherland (higsu@norshore.net) from 205.219.135.13 on November 15, 1998. DELETE EDIT bulk delete

-- Anonymous, November 04, 1998

Answers

/COUNTER CULTURE Bristol Bay escapes the fate of other fisheries, (or does it?) A response to Utne by Keith M. Sutherland. My first impressions were extremely favorable to this admittedly short addition to the article "Ocean Solitaire" by Bill McKibben. I personally admire what seems now to be an old-fashioned virtue, of doing what's right for the whole, regardless of the personal pain and suffering, financial and otherwise, the individual (group) might encounter. In a world of continuing compromises, biological extinction's, it is indeed refreshing to read of someone, somewhere, saying "NO", enough is enough! An Alaskan fisheries biologist cited in the article, Jeff Regnart is the sole person in control of the number of fish allowed to either go upstream to spawn or remain in the bay to be subject to the nets of commercial fishermen. A position which can lose you a popularity contest with unprecedented haste. I left the article with some surprise, as maybe I'd better re-think my opinions of my fellow beings; maybe theirs hope for the biological beings that share our planet despite our past and current misdeeds.

Part Two; A Revelation, or "Dont Look Or Ye Might Find".

I decided to investigate more about this particular subject, including the location of this bay in Alaska. What I found was to say the least, painfully disheartening. Despite the efforts of Mr. Regnart, and those like him, the future for the Salmon does not appear to be bright. The fisheries of Nova Scotia are for all intents and purposes a mere semblance of there, at one time greatness. Now, Bristol Bay the worlds largest commercial fishery is, it seems destined to the same hall of fame. I will close with a final Bravo for Mr. Regnart, a little hope, and let the evidence speak for itself. (Please see Bristol Bay attachments.)

Answered by keith sutherland (higsu@norshore.net) from 205.219.135.13 on November 15, 1998. DELETE EDIT bulk delete

---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------

---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------- BRISTOL BAY ATTACHMENT

July 14, 1997

MURKOWSKI ASKS FEDERAL AGENCIES TO PREPARE FOR ECONOMIC DISASTER, IF BRISTOL BAY FISH RUNS DON'T APPEAR WASHINGTON -- Alaska Sen. Frank Murkowski today asked officials of both the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Small Business Administration to begin preparations to declare an economic disaster in the Bristol Bay region, should weather conditions continue to prevent the annual Bristol Bay red salmon run from materializing.

Murkowski, in letters to James Lee Witt, director of FEMA, and to Aida Alvarez, administration of the SBA, said that the Bristol Bay red salmon run normally provides up to one-third of the value of all salmon caught in Alaska.

"This year's total sockeye salmon returns to Bristol Bay were anticipated to reach about 36 million fish. Regrettably, this has not been the case.... The salmon returns have been disastrously low. Many processing plants are shutting down for lack of fish and total harvests will not exceed, and likely won't reach, 17 million fish. For the thousands of independent fishing captains, crew members and processing workers affected by this failure, many of whom are residents of local villages with few other resources, this is a disaster of the first order that will have an extreme impact," said Murkowski.

He said that while the cause of the apparent fish run failure is not fully known, it is believed that low water levels in area streams because of lack of rainfall and that high marine and fresh water temperatures caused by the warmer than usual summer are at fault.

Murkowski, based on requests from constituents, asked that both agencies take immediate steps to begin working with the State of Alaska to evaluate the extent of the natural resource and the potential need for economic disaster aid in the region.

"It is my hope that you will be able in this way to lay the groundwork for a more rapid decision in the event that the State government finds it necessary to request Federal disaster, unemployment, or other available forms of assistance, as I believe is quite likely," said Murkowski.

Murkowski sent the request as Governor Tony Knowles toured the Bristol Bay region, the first step involved in formally seeking a federal disaster proclamation for the area. Such a proclamation would enable residents to apply for low-interest federal disaster aid/loans.

Other Press Releases

Answered by keith sutherland (higsu@norshore.net) from 205.219.135.13 on November 15, 1998. DELETE EDIT bulk delete

-- Anonymous, December 21, 1998