Young Fishermen’s Summit participation at December 2017 Council meeting
The Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program hosted its seventh Alaska Young Fishermen’s Summit December 6–8 in Anchorage, which overlapped with the Council meeting. The Summit is designed to provide training, information and networking opportunities for commercial fishermen early in their careers, and focuses on building leadership and networking capacity in the Alaska commercial fishing industry. As part of the training, the Summit participants came over and watched the last hour of the Advisory Panel and Council meetings on Thursday, December 7th, followed by a debrief session with Council members and staff, and then a jointly hosted reception which gave further opportunity for participants to interact with staff, members of the Council and Advisory Panel, and industry participants. Additionally, three Summit participants were able to shadow a Council member on Friday morning, to get a perspective of what it is like to be a Council member, and to sit at the table for the morning session. The Council appreciated the enthusiasm and sincerity of the participants, and continues to be interested in encouraging young fishermen to engage in the management process. Staff will explore opportunities with Sea Grant for extending this type of program to other stakeholders in the future, perhaps also through shadowing opportunities with the Advisory Panel.
