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Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust host Spring Virtual Fishermen’s EXPO

The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) and the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust (ASFT) will host a Spring Virtual Fishermen’s EXPO from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 4-5.

The EXPO will provide educational workshops and training to new and experienced local fishermen as well as others with interest in the fishing sector. During this EXPO all the workshops and presentations will be offered in a virtual format.

Commercial and subsistence fishermen of all gear types will have the opportunity to attend free and interactive classes on fishermen training courses, commercial fishing insurance, management updates on halibut bycatch and and pending salmon bycatch actions, business planning for fishermen, break-even analysis, preparing for your lender, deckhand logbook updates, troller-led oceanography in Southeast Alaska, ALFA’s crew training program and more.

Presenters include Maddie Lightsey with Alaska Boats and Permits, Jess Sarsfield with AgWest Farm Credit, Marc Wheeler with Spruce Root, Sunny Rice and Gabe Dunham with Alaska SeaGrant, Linda Behnken and Natalie Sattler with ALFA, Kirk Johanson and Dylan Hopper with SeaMountain Insurance and Tyler Hennon with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. 

Attendees are welcome to participate in as many sessions as they are able. Raffle prizes are available for those that attend sessions. 

Please reach out to Natalie Sattler at program.director@alfafish.org or 907-738-1286 with any questions. Visit alfafish.org for a full schedule of events and to register. All presentations will provide time for questions and discussion.

This series is part of a push by ALFA and ASFT to provide resources and educational opportunities for fishermen, especially those who are just starting out in the industry. “Thanks to the support of our sponsors and ALFA’s membership, we are able to offer these workshops free and open to the public,” ALFA executive director Linda Behnken said.

ALFA is an alliance of small-boat, commercial fishermen that support sustainable fisheries and thriving coastal communities by involving fishermen in research, advocacy, and conservation initiatives. 

ASFT is a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening fishing communities and marine resources through research, education, and economic opportunity.

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ALFA wins major grant to improve, expand electronic monitoring on fishing boats

Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association executive director Linda Behnken’s longliner, the Woodstock (Photo Copyright Josh Roper)

A photo taken from electronic monitoring camera

The Sitka-based Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) has been awarded a major grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to improve at-sea monitoring of Alaska’s longline fisheries through the use of electronic monitoring technologies.

At-sea electronic monitoring (EM) technology uses video cameras aboard fishing vessels to monitor catch and bycatch in lieu of a human observer.  Since many small boats do not have the capacity to take an additional person aboard during fishing trips, EM can be more operationally compatible for the vessel, and potentially more cost effective. After several years of research and pre-implementation, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council approved electronic monitoring as an option for small fixed-gear vessels in the partial coverage sector of the Observer Program in 2016. The grant — awarded by NFWF with funding from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Kingfisher Foundation — will provide ALFA $577,959 to improve Alaska’s longline electronic monitoring program for vessels participating in sablefish, halibut and Pacific cod fixed-gear fisheries.

With this support, ALFA will assist the National Marine Fisheries Service’s work to provide electronic monitoring hardware and field service support for vessels joining the EM program, and also support stakeholder engagement in the program’s development. The project will result in electronic monitoring of up to 120 hook and line vessels and will improve the utility of electronic monitoring data for fishermen and fishery managers alike.

“In Alaska, fishermen pay a large part of the at-sea monitoring costs needed to support our fisheries. By offsetting start-up costs and helping fishermen equip their vessels with EM systems, we can meet at-sea monitoring needs in a way that is more compatible with small vessels and improve cost effectiveness,” says Dan Falvey, Program Director at ALFA.

This is the second NFWF grant that ALFA has received to assist with EM implementation, which will help provide the equipment and field services needed to expand the program to the new vessels.

Over the next two years, 120 longline vessels in Alaska will use electronic monitoring while fishing.

The National Fish and Wildlife Foundations’ Electronic Monitoring and Reporting Grant Program seeks to catalyze the implementation of electronic technologies in U.S. fisheries in order to systematically integrate technology into fisheries data collection and modernized data management systems for improved fisheries management. This year, it awarded a total of more than $3.59 million in grants. The 12 national awards announced generated $3.15 million in match from the grantees, providing a total conservation impact of more than $6.75 million.