Begich bill to expand commerce in Alaska sea otter handicrafts gets first congressional hearing

A House Natural Resources subcommittee held the first hearing Wednesday on a bill that would expand who can commercially produce and sell handicrafts from sea otter pelts harvested by Alaska Natives in Southcentral and Southeast Alaska. Sponsor Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, testified in support; the Department of the Interior and the subcommittee's ranking Democrat raised questions.

H.R. 8401, introduced April 21, would let non-Alaska Natives produce and sell handicrafts from pelts Alaska Natives harvest under the Marine Mammal Protection Act's subsistence framework. Current law restricts sales to "significantly altered" handicrafts produced by Alaska Native craftspeople. The bill also opens international commerce in the resulting products.

Begich framed his case around shellfish. "Dungeness crab, sea cucumbers, geoducks, clams and urchins are the backbone of our dive fisheries and our emerging mariculture industry," he told the subcommittee. "Community after community, our fishermen and shellfish farmers are watching otters strip the resource bare before anyone can harvest it." Sea otter populations have rebounded sharply since reintroduction to Southeast Alaska in the 1960s and '70s, and coastal communities from Sitka to Klawock have raised concerns for years about otter pressure on the same shellfish that anchor both commercial dive fisheries and traditional Alaska Native harvests.

The Department of the Interior testified that it supports the intent of the bill but said it would be difficult to verify that products in the expanded commercial chain come from legally harvested otters.

Ranking member Rep. Kyle Huffman said the bill "inappropriately shifts the response responsibility to subsistence harvest and disadvantages Alaska Native artisans who carefully process pelts into arts and handicrafts," and that it "circumvents the Indigenous Peoples Council for Marine Mammals" — the federally established co-management body for marine mammal subsistence issues.

Begich said he is listening to Alaska Native organizations, fishermen and coastal communities and expects to refine the bill as it moves through the process. No vote was taken Wednesday.