In 1973, the Alaska State Legislature enacted Alaska’s Limited Entry Act (AS 16.43) for commercial fisheries. The Act established a new agency, the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission (CFEC), to administer a program regulating entry into commercial fisheries under state jurisdiction. Limited entry was implemented in most of the salmon fisheries in 1974. By the end of 2021, permanent limited entry permits have been issued in 66 commercial fisheries: 26 salmon fisheries, 20 herring fisheries, 9 crab fisheries, 5 sablefish fisheries, 3 shrimp fisheries and 3 dive fisheries (sea urchin, sea cucumber, and geoduck). In some limited fisheries, more than one type of permit was issued to help contain increases in fishing capacity. Some permits constrain the amount of gear that can be used while others constrain the length of the vessel. In some limited fisheries, non-severable1 permits were issued that combine permissible gear types while other permits combine harvestable species. To date, a total of 79 permit types have been issued in 66 limited fisheries2.
A legal prerequisite of the Limited Entry Act was that permits could not be locked in the hands of those to whom they were originally issued (i.e., the ‘initial issuees’). After much study and debate, the legislature chose free transferability as the method for allowing permit holders to enter and exit the fisheries.
Free transferability allows the transfer of permits from parents to their children and allows a family member to inherit a permit upon the death of a permit holder, as well as sale of permits on the open market. It allows fishermen to enter and exit fisheries at times opportune to them, and it eliminates the need for an expensive and time-consuming bureaucratic process to handle permit reallocation. Many other transfer options were considered but were found lacking with respect to these criteria.
In 1983, the Alaska Supreme Court ruled on the State of Alaska v. Ostrosky3, which challenged the constitutionality of the Limited Entry Act, particularly the free transferability provisions. The court upheld the constitutionality of both the Act and of free transferability, and affirmed the legislative objectives in adopting the transferability option. The decision was subsequently allowed to stand by the United States Supreme Court when it dismissed the Ostrosky appeal in Ostrosky v. State4.
Despite the benefits of free transferability, many persons remain concerned that permit transfers might result in undesirable consequences for the distribution of permits. There is a concern that permits will leave the state, or that permits will disappear from isolated fishing communities which are local to a limited fishery, thereby eroding a traditional economic base. The legislature has twice ordered studies of transferability options, first upon initial passage of the Act5, and again in 19806.
Because of concerns about free transferability, CFEC has produced this report so that the legislature, the administration, and other interested parties will be kept accurately apprised of the facts.
This edition covers the 79 permit types for which permanent permits have been issued in the period 1975 – 2021. It contains detailed information on transfer incidence, the initial geographic distribution of permit holders, changes in the distribution of permits due to permanent transfers of permits and migration of permit holders, and the year-end 2021 geographic distribution of permit holders. Extensive information is also provided on the age distribution of permit holders, age differences between transferors and transfer recipients, rates and characteristics of intra-family and business partner transfers, permit market values and permit acquisition and financing methods.
The written portion of this the main report includes explanations of tables in the chapters, which are displayed herein and can also be downloaded as CSV files. The tables from all Appendices are included herein, and can also be downloaded as CSV files.
Non-severable integrated permits were first issued in the Kodiak roe herring purse seine and gillnet fishery. Non-severable means that the two gear types incorporated in the permit type are inseparable and cannot be sold separately. This was used as means of limiting effort at initial limitation for individuals who qualified under two separate gear types. If the permit had been severable, the individual who qualified under both gear types could have sold the use access conveyed under the gillnet gear and continued to fish using seine gear. Thus, two individuals fishing two different types of gear would have resulted had a severable permit been issued (Muse and Schelle, 1989).)↩︎
By the end of 2021, maximum number regulations had been adopted for 67 fisheries. No permanent entry permits have been issued in the Prince William Sound sablefish pot gear fishery, and therefore the fishery does not appear in this report. In addition, a vessel limited entry system is not reported herein as it was statutorily repealed on December 30, 2021. This system covered both the Bering Sea hair crab fishery and the State-wide weathervane scallop fishery, both of which reverted to open access on December 31, 2019.)↩︎
State of Alaska v. Ostrosky, 667 P.2d 1184 (1983).↩︎
Appeal dismissed for want of a substantial federal question, 467 U.S. 1201, 104 S Ct. 2379, 81 Led. 2d 339 (1984).↩︎
AS 16.43.370 (b) (repealed 1987): “The commission shall study alternative methods of permit transferability and report its findings and recommendations to the legislature before January 15, 1975.” The resulting report was the “Report to the Legislature on Entry Permit Transfers,” CFEC, January 15, 1975.↩︎
Rodgers, G. and J. Kreinheder, “Socioeconomic Analysis for Fishery Areas and Census Divisions.” Prepared for the Limited Entry Study Committee of Alaska Legislature, January 21, 1980.↩︎