The legislature met for 7 days in special session before adjournment with no final solution or compromise. There is talk of another special session before July 26th, the last day an amendment to the constitution can be put on the ballot.

At the end of the session SJR 101 amended in the house was a compromise bill that fell 3 votes short of passage in the house. It would have had to go back to the Senate for agreement. The bill being voted on had an effective date October 1, 2002, a compromise was verbally agreed to by the Governor, and reluctantly by Sen. Stevens and Dept of Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt with a two year effective date of October 1, 2000. This bill would have put a constitutional amendment on the ballot for the voters. The compromise was written to read "The legislature shall, consistent with the sustained yield principle, provide priority for subsistence uses by "residents of a community or area that is substantially dependent on fish and wildlife for nutritional and other subsistence uses". The priority may be based on place of residence. This is the language used in the definition amendment for rural in ANILCA passed by Stevens last fall.

Part of the language in the constitutional amendment was tied to the Legislative Lawsuit challenging Title VIII of ANICLA for violating the Constitution of the United States. Part of this package would have been a statute giving the Legislative Council "standing" (ability to act on the State’s behalf usually reserved for the Governor of the State) to the degree possible so that the lawsuit would not be stopped by a technicality and permanently put to rest one way or another the issue of constitutionality.

As part of the agreement by Stevens and Babbitt, no further amendments to ANILCA would be pushed as part of the solution. After the state has voted in the affirmative on the constitutional amendment, the federal government takeover would be stopped. The lawmakers would have until October 1, 1999 to pass legislation to implement the subsistence preference. After the legislation is in place the federal government would grant one more year for the issue to be settled in the courts.

Rep. Gail Phillips, Speaker of the House and Sen. Mike Miller, Senate President during press conferences following the announcement of adjournment gave reason for the adjournment that at this point taking a break was the best thing to do. They felt the House and Senate members had reached the limit they can endure and you just turn everyone into a no vote. Rep. Gail Phillips would like to start the next special session with the compromise that is before them.

The hope is that during the break, the legislators will go home and have the opportunity to talk and hear from their constituents. Scheduling the next special session just prior to the deadline for a constitutional amendment will put the pressure on legislators to vote yes on the compromise package and prevent the federal takeover.

During the 7 days that the legislature met many different proposals and variations of the proposals were considered. Many of the proposals would not have prevented the federal takeover on Dec. 1st, 1998.

USAG worked very closely with other SE gear groups on the subsistence issue and with UFA. We will be involved during the next special session. You can make a large difference by call your legislator during this break and expressing the importance of passing resolutions that are:

• able to prevent federal takeover on Dec. 1st and maintains State management or has the agreement of the Knowles Administration, & Dept of Interior to delay the takeover.
• at least minimally acceptable to the Knowles Administration.
• acceptable to the Dept of Interior (no major changes to ANILCA and particularly not to the rural priority)
• containing ANILCA changes that our congressional delegation has stated clearly and publicly are within their power to accomplish.

At the request of USAG, the Coast Guard will publish in the Notice to Mariners and periodically broadcast the information that a gillnet fishery is taking place at Tree Point. We hope this will make more boaters aware of the fishery and heighten their awareness to watch for nets in the water.

The following people filed for the seats listed by the June 1st 5:00pm deadline for the State and Southeast races.

Jeffrey Gottlieb (Green)

Bill Hale (R)

Scott Kohlhaas (Libertarian)

Frank Murkowski (R-Incumbent)

Joe Sonneman (D)

Frank Vondersaar (D)

Jim Dore (R)

Jim Duncan (D)

John Grames (Green)

Stu Pechek (D)

Don Young (R-Incumbent)

Nels Anderson Jr. (D)

Robert Gigler (AK Independent)

Harold "Sandy" Haldane (AK Independent)

Tony Knowles (D-Incumbent)

John Lindauer (R)

Wayne Ross (R)

Brad Snowden (D)

Sylvia Sullivan (AK Independent)

Jim Sykes (Green)

Robin Taylor (R)

Don Wright (D)

Larry Buchholz (Green)

Virginia Collins (R)

Doyle Holmes (R)

Don Smith (R)

Fran Ulmer (D)

Jerry Ward (R)

Don Abel (R)

McKie Campbell (R)

Kim Elton (D)

State Representative District 1:

Bill Williams (D-Incumbent)

Ben Grussendorf (D-Incumbent)

Rosemary Hagevig (D)

Beth Kerttula (D)

Amy Skilbred (D)

John Clough (D)

Bill Hudson (R-Incumbent)

Al Kookesh (D-Incumbent)

On May 27, representatives of Alaska, Canada and U.S. Federal Government met in Juneau Alaska to finalize agreements in the Northern British Columbia, SE Alaska and Transboundary River fisheries. The short story is, that we are not quite there yet. By the time an agreement is reached you guys will be on your way to Alaska or getting ready to go fishing. We reached agreement for one (1) year on most issues of concern. The items of contention that are holding up a package deal are conservation of Skeena Coho and sharing of sockeye on the Taku River. Skeena Coho don’t have a lot to do with Southeast Gillnetters, and Canada’s demand for a larger share of Taku Sockeye for a one year deal, will not happen.

Canada agreed to continue the existing annex agreements for Tree Point for 1998. So we should expect gillnet fisheries to be conducted as expected. If they restrict their fisheries to conserve Skeena Coho we might see limited seining on the boundary in 1998.

District 6 & 8 will be managed as previously planned. Unless a higher than anticipated run returns to the Stikine River, little or no mid week fishing will occur in District 8. A test fishery in District 8 is being developed and ADF&G will maximize opportunity on Sitkine sockeye to the gillnet fleet.

The next time you hear from me will probably be on the grounds. Good Fishing, Arnold Enge.

A lawsuit was filed in federal court in Seattle on Friday (5/31/98) against guidelines issued last month by the NMFS. The regulations were for plans this fall being put into place as part of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Management and Conservation Act. The two guidelines dealt with overfishing and bycatch issues.

The Stevens-Magnuson revisions required fishery managers to do everything practical to reduce bycatch. The new guidelines given to the regional councils that write the specific rules for fishing off the U.S. Coast - modify that requirement by saying that bycatch regulations also should "maximize the net benefits to the nation."

Scott Smullen, spokesman for the fisheries service was quoted in the Juneau Empire that the agency believes it has met the congressional intent.

"We emphasize that the first priority is to avoid bycatch, and where that can’t be done, to minimize it. For the first time regional councils must look at environmental issues, he said although economic factors are also considered.

USAG participated in a task force meeting in May. Participants in the meeting included the executive directors from Southeast Alaska Seiners Assoc., Petersburg Vessel Owners Assoc., Alaska Troller Assoc., United Southeast Alaska Gillnetters Assoc., Sue Jorgenson from the USCG Marine Safety Office and several participants from NMFS.

While this will be an ongoing process, the new information we received during this meeting will have an impact on the gillnet and seine fleet in SE AK.

A new regulation passed by NMFS makes it mandatory for all boats that have an observer to have passed and received a courtesy coast guard dockside exam. Before you get your hopes up that you can keep an observer off your boat by not getting an exam, the consequence of not having the exam is that they can stop your fishing trip and prevent you from fishing until you have received the decal.

USAG suggests that if the opportunity presents itself this year to receive a courtesy dockside exam, you should receive it this year and not have the possibility of not having an exam in place next year and be prevented from fishing. Courtesy exams are good for a two year time period.

If you are boarded more than once during the year, please notify the USAG office (907) 586-5860.

We have been notified when USAG checked that no gillnetter was boarded more than once last year.

USAG office would need your name, the boat name, dates boarded, and reason for boarding or copies of the boarding slips. Make sure you receive a copy of the boarding slip every time.

USAG would like to extend their thanks for the time and dedication John Scott showed during his tenure as a USAG Board Member. He resigned this spring when he felt that he did not have the time necessary to due justice to the commitment that is necessary as a USAG Board member.

USAG Board of Directors appointed Brian Seman (F/V Sunny) to the board seat for the North Puget Sound Chapter. Brian has been filling in at some meetings and teleconferences when John was unable to attend prior to his appointment to the board.