Fishing communities need state to cast a line for answers

No question last year was pretty miserable for Alaska’s commercial fishing industry — the people who catch and clean salmon; the processors that buy, prep and ship the fish; the communities that depend on the summer jobs and tax revenues.

And no question that this year is looking about as dark, or darker.

The head of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute recently described last year as “rock bottom” for prices paid to fishers and weak markets for processors, later amending that statement to say that this year is scrapping another layer deeper into the bottom.

“Unfortunately, Americans just don’t eat enough seafood,” he said. That fact, plus losing market share in China to U.S. tariff tiffs and seeing a growing volume of low-cost Russian salmon in the world’s fish cases have added up to bleak times for the Alaska salmon industry.

The state Legislature wants to help but isn’t sure what to do.

So it may appoint a task force. Often, a task force is a political answer in search of postponing hard decisions on tough problems. But in this case, it’s probably the second-best thing lawmakers can do at the moment that might have a long-term benefit.

There is nothing the state can do this spring to boost prices much for the coming summer season, short of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to buy salmon dinners for every American. That’s assuming you could get every American to even try salmon.

One encouraging aspect of the task force proposal which is originating in the state Senate is the timeline: Senators want a report back by January so that the Legislature can act quickly on any recommendations. Back-to-back bad years are bad enough; a third is a bad year too many.

The state’s seafood industry is “facing unprecedented challenges,” said the sponsor statement for the Senate resolution. The measure is supported by the three co-chairs of the Senate Finance Committee and the Senate president.

“Alaskan fishermen, processors, processing workers, support businesses, communities are confronted with low prices, plant closures, lost markets and foregone fishing opportunities,” United Fishermen of Alaska Executive Director Tracy Welch told the Senate Finance Committee last week.

While creating a task force to come back with more recommendations next year, the Legislature should start the work this year with the best first answer: Appropriate more funding for seafood marketing efforts.

-- Wrangell Sentinel