Issues

Sustainable Fisheries, Healthy Communities

Rural coastal communities across Alaska share many common characteristics that set them apart from rural communities in other parts of the country:

• A lack of road systems places the burden of transportation of people and goods heavily on airplanes and vessels, both of which are subject to weather.
  
  
• Transportation costs highly inflate prices of goods throughout rural Alaska, but especially in northern communities that lose their ocean access due to ice for half the year.
  
  
• A widespread lack of modern conveniences taken for granted by most Americans, including sewer systems, running water, and proper solid waste disposal.

However, probably the most important common trait seen across these communities is their dependence on well-managed ocean resources. Both subsistence and commercial fisheries rely heavily on proper guidance from resource managers.

A notable success story is how the well-managed fisheries of the North Pacific, under the auspices of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA), have met the needs of the residents of rural Alaskan communities. From the Community Development Quota (CDQ) Program, in which six groups representing 65 fishing communities are actually allocated a portion of the groundfish and crab fisheries from which they derive many employment opportunities and broad economic growth, to other non-CDQ coastal communities whose foundations are built solidly upon commercial fishing, coastal Alaska could not survive without sustainable use of wisely-managed ocean resources.

Allocations to CDQ groups, facilitated through the MSA, have boosted the economies of their communities and subsequently the standard of living for their residents in many ways, including:

Creation of employment opportunities:

• Development of fishing infrastructure (e.g. processing plants, harvesting vessels);
  
  
• Development and support of regional commercial and subsistence fisheries;
  
  
• Provision of fisheries quota for regional residents to harvest;
  
  
• Establishment of educational, training, and scholarship programs;
  
  
• Research and development of new and existing fisheries; and
  
  
• Investments in Bering Sea fishing companies.

From 1993-2003, CDQ groups in total have facilitated over $94 million in wages and over $15 million in training to over 9,400 residents of the CDQ communities.

Many non-CDQ communities are fully dependent on fisheries managed under the MSA. For example, Unalaska/Dutch Harbor's economy relies on the fishing industry for both public and private sector services, including:

Fishing income;
Fuel sales;
Equipment and supply sales;
Onshore processing;
Vessel servicing;
Logistical support;
Vehicle rentals; and
Local and state taxes.

In 2002 alone, Unalaska/Dutch Harbor fisheries businesses and services contributed over $35 million in state and local taxes. Overall, the community has seen over $300 million invested locally by the seafood industry - all a direct result of sustainably managed North Pacific fishery resources.