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 fifth virtual Fishermen’s Expo on Nov. 9 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 permit and quota purchasing, gear recycling, Energy Transitions Initiative Partnership Project updates, PredictWind updates, marine mammal deterrents and proposed regulations, mental health and commercial fishing, harmful algae blooms and how to get involved in the council process.
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 year. 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 Fall Virtual Expo sponsors and partners for their generous support: City and Borough of Sitka, Edgerton Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, and more. We would also like to thank the following for their generous raffle prizes: Delta Western, Salmon Sisters, and the Hames Corporation.
We look forward to hosting more educational events for our local fishing fleet and community members 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
