Tens of millions of dollars are at risk if something isn’t done by Oct 15. I’ve watched every season of the Deadliest Catch and know how badly losing a season can hurt them. These men could literally lose their boats and their livelihoods. It’s not just the Captains. The more experienced crewmen work for shares of the catch. Typically one crewman may make 40k on a boat like the Northwestern or Time Bandit. That’s probably half his income for the entire year.
The article mentions there are only 80 boats in the Alaska crab fleet. It’s limited by the quota assigned to each boat. I’d bet one guy could issue these 80 permits in three days. Let’s say he gets paid $12 an hour or $96 a day. $288 and the The U.S. Department of the Interior can’t be bothered to save an entire fishing industry for a lousy $288?
This isn’t a political issue. Some a-hole in the Interior Dept isn’t willing to put one guy on a plane to Alaska. The entire dept isn’t on furlough. There has to be some supervisor or dept head that could issue these permits.
There’s a point when people with common sense have to forget about the politics. The Dems and Repubs can have their pissing match. I could care less who wins or comes out ahead. Somebody needs to get off their high horse and issue these permits.
Could they cross the strait and fish from Russia? I’m sure Putin would love to say to the world how he saved the poor fishermen from the American Government. They have factory ships to process the catch. Big boost to the Siberian economy.
Luckily the debt deadline is Oct 17. It’s inconceivable that either party would fall off that cliff. They’ll have to work out some kind of short term agreement to get the Gov going again. That should save the crab fleet’s season too.
It just bothers me that essential resources aren’t being allocated by the various dept’s. The entire gov isn’t shutdown. They may be working skeleton crews but the most essential services are getting taken care of. That certainly should include a crab harvest worth tens of millions of dollars. Something as trivial as issuing permits to 80 boats has to be taken care of. All the hard work of planning the season and determining quotas for the boats would have been done months ago. Issuing the permits is just a formality.
Might be worth looking into. You take whatever measures are necessary when the house is burning down.
You’re right. It’s all gamesmanship to the Washington politicians. Win at all costs no matter who gets hurt. I suspect that the U.S. Department of the Interior could have issued the crab permits before the shutdown. The predictions of a shutdown had been reported for months.
I dunno. What’s the point of a shut down if things aren’t shut down?
I keep seeing news stories about folks wanting funding for just the WW2 Memorial… and just the Grand Canyon… and just the Congressional gymnasium… and just the bay in the Florida park… just the Cancer Research Center…
Well, what about big ticket items like NASA, the EPA, the CDC, SNAP, WIC, food inspectors, the nuclear industry, etc.?
If things are shut, they should just be shut. Sneaking a little funding here and there to help this pet group or that special need undermines the whole point of this ridiculous exercise.
The State of Alaska should just announce that it is usurping the authority to issue permits until the shutdown is over, and start issuing them as if it’s business as usual. When the Feds bitch, tell them to start doing their jobs again, so the state doesn’t have to do it for them.
I’m quite certain that there are DOI employees posted in Anchorage or Juneau. But if there aren’t any, then the Washington office would have to send someone (plane fare), put him up in a hotel and feed him (per diem), and provide transportation funds (rent-a-car). Just pointing out that it’s not just a matter of somebody’s salary. Also, one would have to be an entry-level GS4 to make only $12/hr.
I would hope that someone in WDC will be allowed to pick up a phone and call a DOI person in Anchorage and authorize this action. The OP is correct: these people will go out of business if they aren’t allowed to fish, and then become part of the 47% that is always looking for handouts.
I found this interview with Capt Keith Colburn. He owns The Wizard and is featured on The Deadliest Catch. Interesting perspective. Next seasons Deadliest Catch will probably cover this in its first episode. I can just imagine these boats sitting at the docks, fueled up, crab pots stacked, and waiting to go.
ChefGuy makes a good point that the DOI will probably send somebody from Anchorage or Juneau to issue the permits. Maybe a regional supervisor that isn’t furloughed. There should be somebody on a skeleton crew that can operate the computer and issue the permits.
There are a LOT of people hurting just like those Alaska fisherman, because of the government shutdown. A huge number. It just wouldn’t be fair to help them without helping everyone else. The only solution is get the govermnent working again.
I always hear conservatives say the federal goverment doesn’t do anything. But when it’s shut down, that’s when you discover that it actually does do stuff that people need.
If the crab fleet is unable to go out this year, the only “winners” are the ones who’ve already been paid such as the banks who hold the loans, the insurance companies and fuel suppliers.
Several of those boats “live” in Seattle - it had been mentioned on Deadliest Catch that everything is stupid expensive in Dutch, so they go south for major engine work, supplies and equipment. This interviewwith the Hillstrands indicates that moving a crab boat from Seattle to Dutch Harbor consumes about 5,200 gallons of fuel. AFAIK, they run on diesel, rather than bunker fuel, so just to “deadhead” a boat from Seattle to Dutch, they’re spending somewhere around $20,000 based on today’s prices for marine diesel fuel in Seattle.
The losers? The fishermen, obviously, plus the fuel suppliers in Alaska (the Hillstrands say they go through about 80,000 gallons in a season, so if the fleet stays docked, there’s a few million dollars worth of fuel not being sold) the processing plants and their workers, the shipping companies and all the way down to the waitress at your local Red Lobster when you don’t go there because they’re not having an all-you-can-eat special on crab legs.
Hahahahahaha!. . .oh, my stars. Sorry. . .ahem. . .Alaska has been under the federal thumb ever since the US acquired it in 1867. Statehood in 1959 at least resulted in Alaska being able to somewhat manage its resources instead of Seattle doing so, but the federal government still exercises extraordinary control over most aspects of the state. Far more so than any other state. Efforts to get out from under that control have frustrated every Alaskan senator, governor and congressman since statehood happened. Alaska has never been thought to be able to manage its own affairs, despite ample evidence to the contrary, so the government continues to treat it like a bastard stepchild.
Because states don’t own the oceans. Countries do.
“Though the treaty has yet to be ratified, most countries are adhering to its guidelines and have begun to consider themselves ruler over a 200 nm domain. Martin Glassner reports that these territorial seas and EEZs occupy approximately one-third of the world ocean, leaving just two-thirds as “high-seas” and international waters.”
You take whatever measures are necessary when the house is burning down.