At this meeting, the SSC reviewed the Groundfish and Crab Economic SAFE reports as presented by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center’s Economic and Social Science Research Division, and provided feedback for future iterations.
The Groundfish and Crab Economic SAFE reports contain detailed information about economic aspects of the groundfish and crab fisheries. The SSC appreciated the AFSC presentations on both reports. The Groundfish Economic SAFE has evolved over the last several years and is a useful reference, but the SSC noted that the Crab Economic SAFE still needs further development in the presentation and accessibility of information. The SSC also recognized that representation of community engagement is still evolving for Economic SAFEs. The SSC recommended that authors develop a consistent strategy for the presentation of different aspects and resolutions of fishing community engagement and dependency in various documents. Specific to the Crab Economic SAFE, the SSC looks forward to completion of the quota ownership decomposition effort, which will allow better tracking of who is capturing the ownership benefits of the crab program. The SSC is also looking forward to the local and traditional knowledge relevant to the Norton Sound red king crab fishery (NSRKC), which is an outstanding SSC request. Finally, the SSC noted that its previous request for the development of a quantitative baseline of annual community engagement and dependency for the NSRKC fishery has not yet been completed and looks forward to that information.
Staff contact is Jon McCracken.
