Bristol Bay Fisheries Collaborative (BBFC)

Providing resources for a world-class fishery management system

Download annual reports:

BBFC Annual Report, 2017

Who
Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), BBSRI, drift and setnet fishermen, processors, municipalities, villages, support industries, and other stakeholders.

What

A simple agreement between ADF&G and BBSRI to work together with stakeholders to restore a world-class fishery management system and raise funding to support and maintain it.

When

Began in 2016 after a 30%+ cut to ADF&G's budget over several years.

Why
To ensure that State fishery managers have sufficient resources to intensively manage the Bristol Bay salmon fisheries for the benefit of all users (subsistence, sport and commercial).

Additional Information

Over the fall and winter of 2016/2017, BBSRI worked with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) and other stakeholders to find ways to shore up ADF&G’s management system for Bristol Bay salmon, while minimizing the risk that by doing so stakeholders do not simply accelerate further budget cuts by the State.

In October 2016, BBSRI signed an agreement with ADF&G to contribute and raise funding from the fishing industry and local boroughs, cities, and villages to fill a fiscal gap between the current scope of ADF&G's management program in Bristol Bay (i.e., 2016), and a scope similar to 5-7 years ago.

We coined the initiative the “Bristol Bay Fisheries Collaborative” (BBFC) but this is a very simple agreement and process. A four-person technical team from BBSRI and ADF&G has defined the scope of what keeps the management world-class. All projects supported by BBFC have been done in the past. BBSRI raises the money and provides it to ADF&G via a Cooperative Agreement and in the form of a match to ADF&G's current Bristol Bay operating budget, which is close to $2M annually.

BBSRI agreed to match all stakeholder contributions on a 1:1 basis, thereby providing 50% of the funds required.

Core Program - How much money?
BBFC’s four-person Working Group, made up of BBSRI and ADF&G biologists and managers, identified a “Core Program”, made up of a suite of field programs and management structure that will provide ADF&G the tools to intensively manage salmon fisheries in Bristol Bay. The proposed Core Program is similar in scope to what was done 5-7 years ago, and a bit smaller than it was in the mid-to-late 1980s. All BBFC supported projects have been done by ADF&G at some point in the past; these are not "new" projects.

BBFC-funds eliminate the unpopular State-sponsored fishing to raise money for management (i.e., “cost recovery fishing”).

The difference between ADF&G’s General Fund allocation (~$2M) and the cost of the Core Program for salmon in 2018 was ~$750,000. This was raised by BBSRI and the BBFC process.
In recent years, stakeholders have provided ~$350-400k to support some of these programs, so the $750,000 does not represent all “new” money, but does represent an increase in stakeholder support over the years prior to BBFC.

BBFC has contributed over $2.5 million toward managing the Bay salmon fishery from 2017-2020.

Organizations providing support:

BBSRI ($1,300,000)

Bristol Bay Regional Seafood Dev. Assoc. (BBRSDA; $575,000)

Salmon Processors ($575,000)

Alaska General Seafoods (AGS)
Big Creek Fisheries
Copper River Seafoods
E&E Seafoods
Ekuk Fisheries
Icicle Seafoods
Leader Creek Fisheries
North Pacific Seafoods
Ocean Beauty Seafoods
Peter Pan Seafoods
Silver Bay Seafoods
Trident Seafoods