Overview
The North Pacific Crab Association, representing several shore-based processors and western-Alaska Community Development Quota (“CDQ”) organizations, has serious concerns about the “Interim Framework For Effective Coastal and Marine Spatial Planning”, and respectfully submits these detailed comments.

Our most significant concern is the potential for the CMSP framework to usurp the successful regional council process for fisheries management in the federal waters off of Alaska; which has resulted in several “catch share” programs that are recognized as some of the most successful sustainable fisheries management models in the world.

Beyond that issue, we are also concerned about the lack of appropriate stakeholder representation that is proposed under the CMSP regime, the policy’s reliance on unproven data collection and economic/ecosystem modeling, and the almost inevitable constitutional and jurisdictional disputes that will arise from a poorly designed framework.
We recommend that the public comment period be extended, and that a more
thorough and thoughtful stakeholder engagement process be utilized by the
Interagency Policy Task Force.

Specific Comments, the CMSP Framework has the potential to undermine and usurp the highly successful fisheries management council process established under the Magnuson- Stevens Act (“MSA”).  In spite of the fact that the draft CMSP document tries to assure the reader that CMSP processes would be “… carried out consistent with and under the authority of (existing) statutes” and that CMSP is “… not intended to supersede them”; it goes on to say that “(W)here pre-existing legal constraints, either procedural or substantive, are identified for any Federal agency, the National Ocean Council … would work with the agency to evaluate whether a legislative solution or changes to regulations are necessary and appropriate.”

The MSA has established regional fishery management councils to develop
comprehensive fishery management plans in federal waters. In our case (in federal waters off the coast of Alaska), the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, working with a broad range of stakeholders in a science-driven process, has established several successful “catch share” programs that are recognized throughout the world as models for sustainable resource management.

The interim framework does identify a role for the existing regional fishery
management councils, and clearly establishes a process that could result in
amendments to MSA driven not by stakeholders and science, but by other federal agencies that at best lack the expertise to manage fisheries resources, and at worst have conflicting missions.  In fact, our reading of the CMSP framework leads us to conclude that by giving the National Oceans Council (“NOC”) the authority to establish “broad national objectives” and their associated “outcome based performance measures” that not only is the MSA undermined, but even the public protections afforded by the National
Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”) are called into question.
The CMSP framework relies heavily on data collection and the development of CSMP statistical models. Based on the current fisheries Economic Data
Reporting (“EDR”) process in Alaska, we know that it takes a significant and
lengthy collaborative effort between stakeholders and scientists to develop
reasonable data sets and efficient data collection processes, and the myriad of
variables that these models require take years to analyze and validate.
The Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crab catch share program is in it’s fifth year.

The comprehensive data collection program for this single-species fishery is
undergoing a complete review and rewrite because of it’s unacceptable costs and poor results. We recommend that the Interagency Task Force examine this situation closely (contact: Dr. Mark Fina, North Pacific Fishery Management Council) and Page 2 consider the implications of expanding such a process across multiple fisheries and numerous marine resource user groups. We believe that such a process is going to place significant financial burdens on the federal budget and marine resource users without resulting in usable management tools for many years.
The CMSP framework recommends a process that is expected to include State
and Federal waters, including bays, estuaries and “… additional inland areas … as the regional planning bodies deem appropriate”. Based on our experience trying to align State and Federal water issues in Alaska, we have significant concern that constitutional and jurisdictional disputes are almost inevitable.  For years, the NPFMC and the State of Alaska have worked to align fishery management issues in state and federal waters. We classify these efforts as “parallel fisheries” issues and inevitably there are conflicting constitutional issues that prove difficult, and at times intractable. The CMSP framework glosses over this problem as if it does not exist or that it can be settled in a conference room.   This issue alone should illustrate the need to develop and implement a CMSP framework at best as a document that provides “policy guidance” for the agencies and stakeholders engaged in the use and management of our marine resources.

Contact: Steven K. Minor, Executive Director
North Pacific Crab Association
steve@wafro.com
360-440-4737