State opens comment on $5.8 million Cook Inlet setnet relief plan

Public Comment Open on $5.8 Million East Side Setnet Disaster Relief

East Side set gillnet permit holders can comment on the state's initial draft spend plan for $5.8 million in federal disaster relief before the plan is final.

The State of Alaska opened public comment Wednesday on the draft plan for the 2023 Upper Cook Inlet East Side Set Net salmon fishery disaster. The state drafted the plan in consultation with stakeholders and NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service.

NOAA Fisheries allocated the $5.8 million on June 10. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce declared the disaster on May 24, 2024, under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, acting on a request Gov. Mike Dunleavy made in January of that year.

The state says East Side setnet permit holders and fishing families have absorbed losses from closures and poor returns, and that they depend on the spend plan and the federal allocation for direct payments and related recovery work. Processing companies are also eligible recipients, because salmon fishery disasters cut the volume they handle and the revenue that comes with it.

A Fleet That Has Been Here Before

The fleet has been here before. Earlier determinations covered the 2018 East Side setnet and 2020 Upper Cook Inlet fisheries. The spend plan for those years directed about 62 percent of the funds to harvesters.

The allocation is one piece of a broader pattern. Repeated disasters in Alaska's salmon and crab fisheries have made federal relief a recurring support for coastal communities, fishermen and related businesses. The 2023 East Side setnet money came out of a $123.6 million national allocation covering six previously declared disasters in Alaska, Oregon, California and for the Squaxin Island Tribe.

Comments submitted during the period will inform the state's final plan.