Applications should now be in hand for Alaska salmon fishermen and processors hurt by the 2016 pink salmon fishery failure.
NOAA Fisheries last month approved $56.3 million in relief funds for fishery failures at Kodiak, Prince William Sound, Chignik, Lower Cook Inlet, South Alaska Peninsula, Southeast Alaska, and Yakutat.
Funds are being distributed by the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission (PSMFC).
Salmon permit holders who show losses from the pink bust will split $31.8 million based on average dockside values over even years starting in 2006.
Skippers are responsible for compiling crew data and their application deadline is October 31. Crew members then can apply for their payments through January 31.
Alaska processors also must apply by October 31 to receive their share of $17.7 million in relief funds.
Processing workers will be eligible for an equal share of 15% of an eligible processor’s total disaster payment. Representative Louise Stutes of Kodiak helped push the funds through –
“It affects all the cannery workers all the processors, all the businesses in the community. This is a trickle down effect.”
Details are still being worked out on distributing $2.4 million to municipalities that were affected by the pink crash.
The disaster funds also include a $3.63 million chunk for pink salmon research.
It’s not too late to get a new RSW system for this season!
Of that, $450,000 goes to Kodiak’s Kitoi Bay Hatchery for its Saltwater Marking Sampling project.
The Southeast Alaska Coastal Monitoring Survey will get $680,000 to help with pink salmon forecasting.
Finally, $2.5 million will go to the Alaska Hatchery Research Project that since 2100 has studied interactions of hatchery and wild salmon in Prince William Sound and Southeast.
The relief funds should be in hand six to eight weeks after an application is accepted. Got questions? Click on the link!
