Resolutions passed at the Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference (SWAMC) Jan. 30 included requests to increase the Alaska Marine Highway System’s (AMHS) M/V Kennicott service to Southwest Alaska from April to September, appeals for more state transportation infrastructure and renewable energy funding, and increased state participation in the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute’s promotional programs.

Members of the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly and Kodiak City Council attended the meeting, held in Anchorage.

City Councilman Jack Maker said representatives from AMHS told him ferry captains didn’t like the proposed Near Island ferry terminal site due to its difficult approach and wanted to revisit the breakwater project. Maker added, however, that nothing has been determined or confirmed yet regarding the issue.

Another resolution addressed what SWAMC called the potentially devastating impacts, economically and to future fishing seasons, of an environmental impact report on Bering Sea chinook salmon bycatch management that will serve as a central decision-making force for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. The impact report attempts to minimize chinook salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery while still getting an optimum pollock yield.

In order to reduce chinook bycatch, the NPFMC may impose restrictive limits on chinook bycatch in the pollock fishery, which could make “the end result being a possible shut down of the entire Bering Sea Pollock fishery during A/B fishing seasons,” according to the resolution.

The resolution called for more research on the origin of chinook salmon bycatch and Bering Sea salmon abundance figures before placing restrictions. The resolution called for a full cost-benefit analysis of the potential impacts, adding that the environmental impact report lacked “any meaningful analysis of the direct and indirect economic consequences that could cost hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenues for Pollock-dependent communities in Southwest Alaska and the State of Alaska.”

“We need sustainable fisheries, but we also need sustainable economies to support those industries,” said Maker.

City Councilman Terry Haines, who also attended SWAMC and does not agree with recent crab rationalization policy, said Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s fisheries adviser thinks there will be push for catch shares nationwide.

“We all need to think about coherent fisheries policy that will serve us so we can be ahead of the curve … hopefully we’ve learned something from crab rationalization so we can do it better next time… if we get together in forums like SWAMC, we can have a coherent policy and plan these catch systems out better.”

Mirror writer Bradley Zint can be reached via e-mail at bzint@kodiakdailymirror.com.