ADF&G Announces Open Comment Period and Listening Session for Federal Fishery Disaster Spend Plan

(Juneau, AK) – The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (Department) is developing a final spend plan for 2022 Chignik salmon fishery disaster relief. The State supports an open and transparent process for distributing disaster relief and will work with affected stakeholders and NOAA Fisheries to identify funding priorities while developing the spend plan. The Department will host a virtual listening session on Tuesday, November 10 from 3:30 pm to 4:30 pm AKDT, to receive input from affected fishery participants. Written comments can be emailed to: dfg.com.fisheriesdisasters@alaska.gov

If you are unable to attend, please email comments by Friday, November 20 for consideration in the final draft of the spend plan. This will be the last opportunity to provide comments.

Fishery Disaster Spend Plan Virtual Listening Session

We will attempt to provide all listening session participants with an opportunity to comment and appreciate your patience.

Please join us at 3:30 pm AKDT on November 10^th by Microsoft Teams meeting:

Guidance for submitting comments:

Disaster funds are intended to offset the harm incurred from a fishery failure. Disaster funds may be used to assess the economic and social effects of the fishery failure and for activities that restore the fishery or prevent a similar failure. Disaster funds can be used to assist fishing communities affected by the fishery failure by helping commercial fishermen, processors, subsistence users, and infrastructure. See the NOAA Fisheries web site for additional information on fishery disaster assistance: https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/national/funding-and-financial-services/fishery-disaster-assistance.

Previous Alaska fishery disaster spend plans have provided funds for two general categories: research and direct payments to affected fishery participants such as harvesters, processors, communities, and households. To assist in development of the spend plans for the recently funded fishery disasters, the State is requesting comments on:

• categories of affected fishery participants to receive direct payments,
• eligibility criteria for direct payments,
• how to allocate funds among the categories of fishery participants, and
• recommendations for research or other project priorities such as habitat restoration, public infrastructure projects, capacity reduction, or stock enhancement.