Fishermen’s Expo
Dear Editor: Building on the success of past Fishermen’s Expo, the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association and Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust hosted our fourth virtual Fishermen’s Expo on March 30 to provide educational workshops to local fishermen. Thanks to our sponsors, all events were free and open to the public.
ALFA has been providing trainings in the form of our Fishermen’s EXPO since 2016. At the Fishermen’s EXPOs, participants have the opportunity to attend educational forums on a variety of topics. This past EXPO event provided workshops and presentations on bathymetry mapping updates, halibut Catch Sharing Plan and fishery policy updates, large shark electronic monitoring project, skipper training for ALFA’s Crewmember Training Program, hear from representatives on Smart Buoys and PredictWind fishing vessel products, Skipper Science plans for 2022, Dangers, Health and Near Misses AMSEA Round Table and Geology and Fish and much more. To access a recording of the most recent EXPO and relevant resources, please visit our website: alfafish.org.
Providing resources and educational opportunities for local fishermen, especially young fishermen, is part of ALFA’s mission. In the future, we hope to build on this successful model with support from the Young Fishermen’s Development Act which was passed by Congress and signed by the President last winter. This Act will support similar workshops, trainings, and programs for young fishermen across the country.
On behalf of ALFA and ASFT’s staff and membership, we would like to thank our Spring Virtual Expo sponsors and partners for their generous support: Alaska Boats and Permits, First National Bank of Alaska, Hames Corporation, Old Harbor Books, Backdoor Coffee, Highliner Coffee Co., Guy Cotten, and Salmon Sisters.
We look forward to hosting more events like this in the future, and invite anyone who is interested in ALFA’s work to visit our website at alfafish.org.
Natalie Sattler, Program Director, ALFA and ASFT
Linda Behnken, Executive Director, ALFA
Thanks, AC Lakeside
Dear Editor: Chopping, slicing, flipping, broiling, spreading, stirring, spooning, stacking, giving, taking, chomping, fund-raising! All of our thanks go to Vince and the AC Lakeside barbecue crew who took care of the hunger of hundreds of Sitkans last Saturday, and in doing so helped to care for the unhoused members of our community. A lot of work went into this fundraiser, during it and even before it happened! All of the crew worked seamlessly together, keeping the steak sandwiches, burgers and dogs coming. Thanks also go out to all of the community members who came to support us, paying for their yummy food, and many also leaving extra money in the donation jars, or straight out writing checks in support of the Sitka Homeless Coalition. We raised about $3,500 with the super help of Lakeside, showing again, their strong support of this wonderful community we live in.
Sitka Homeless Coalition,
Cabin Community Crew
