Juneau task force to review draft rules that could license and cap whale-watching boats

Juneau's Visitor Industry Task Force 2.0 will review draft recommendations Saturday, Oct. 10, that could require whale-watching companies to get a city license and cap the number of boats allowed to operate. The worksession starts at noon in the Assembly Chambers and is open only in person. It also covers downtown congestion, helicopter flightseeing and data collection.

Task force members agreed on the drafts Sept. 10, according to draft minutes. They ask city lawyers to explore a license or permit system, a limited-entry program that would cap how many operators can hold permits, a moratorium on new operators, a license cap and what the drafts call "future tapering," along with an operating agreement covering no-go zones and vessel spacing. All of it still needs refinement before a final report goes to the Juneau Assembly.

Any license would apply to the activity, not to docks or routes, and a whale-watching company would be defined as one that advertises whale watching. The model is the City and Borough of Juneau's marijuana licensing system. Conditions could include automatic identification system (AIS) tracking, membership in Tourism Best Management Practices, vessel limits and wildlife-distance rules.

Federal law already requires vessels in Alaska to stay 100 yards from humpback whales. Programs like Whale SENSE and Tourism Best Management Practices are voluntary, and a 2023 city memo found Juneau has no enforcement mechanism of its own.

A draft cost tracker puts license work at $40,000 to $100,000 and a limited-entry program at $50,000 to $150,000. Task force members say those figures still need validation. Other draft items include sorting out enforcement with NOAA Fisheries and the city's Docks & Harbors and Law departments, reviewing speed zones and fuel-dock congestion at Statter Harbor, and moving the 500-foot buoy, at an estimated $30,000 to $100,000.

About 75 whale-watching boats now operate in Juneau, according to a Sept. 3 task force packet. NOAA estimated that the industry generated $57.8 million in total economic impact in 2019 and supported 590 jobs. "As far as we can tell, Juneau is the largest whale watching destination in the world," Suzie Teerlink, a marine mammal specialist with NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Regional Office, said in a 2022 NOAA Fisheries feature.

The Southeast Alaska Whale-Watching Association supports a cap, but in a Sept. 16 letter it urged a model closer to Alaska's commercial fisheries, with permits "owned by the business and that can be transferred with the sale of a vessel or company."

The task force advises the Juneau Assembly, which will decide whether to act on any of the recommendations. A second public testimony meeting is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 15, at 5:30 pm.