The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted over the weekend to relax economic data reporting requirements for the Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands crab fisheries.  Mark Fina, the Council’s senior economic advisor, testified that many of the current requirements are duplicated elsewhere or are not reliable enough for use by analysts.

Fina presented a report outlining three alternatives for updating the program - one alternative being the status quo.  The Council opted for the least stringent reporting requirements, eliminating many areas of data collection.

Andrew Jensen of the Alaska Journal of Commerce reports that the Council’s scientific advisory group strongly opposed the move.  According to Jensen, the group’s chairperson said the Council should improve problematic data collection, not eliminate it. 

The final motion removed language that would have required boats to submit crew contracts and settlement sheets after lengthy public testimony on the subject. 

Several vessel owners gave the Council form letters signed by their crews expressing concern that the release of crew contracts could lead to privacy violations.  Here’s Jim Stone, president of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, an industry group.

“We have social security numbers, birth dates, medical records, bank accounts, even emergency contacts.  In some cases the person’s mother, with their maiden name, is even there.  Our crews are well known to be some of the highest paid fishermen in the nation and this info could be a treasure trove to anyone interested in identity theft.”

Meanwhile crabber Shawn Dochtermann of the Crewman’s Association made an impassioned argument for the Council to collect the data, saying it would reveal a great deal about crew compensation.

“Crews are not being furnished reconcilable settlement sheets.  As you can see as you pass this around, I have two people that were happy to furnish them.  You can see that there’s nothing to do with gross pounds caught, gross revenues, what was taken out as the raw fish tax, what was taken out for IFQ tax.  And on the fourth page there’s a buyback tax taken out of the crew.  The buyback was 30 vessels that were bought out, and their quota and given to the rest of these industry owners that were quota holders.”

Councilor Duncan Fields introduced an amendment to include settlement sheets and contracts in the data collection, but it failed 10-1.  

The final motion passed 11-0.