Bill would reinstate fishing guide licenses

JUNEAU — A Valley representative’s bill to reinstate fishing guide licenses is making its way through committee.

The program to require fishing guides to hold a license from the state is about 10 years old. But the legislation, as it was first drafted, contained a sunset clause, which meant the law expired at the end of last year.

Since then, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has been issuing licenses but not collecting fees. Freshman Representative Cathy Tilton, R-Fairview, is trying to change that.

“This bill is really a safety bill,” Tilton said in an interview last week.

During a House Finance Committee hearing Friday, Tom Brookover, with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, said the license program addresses safety in a number of ways, such as requiring that a guide have first aid training, carry insurance and maintain a U.S. Coast Guard license for boating.

The department wouldn’t be able to require guides to do most of those things if the bill to reinstitute the program didn’t pass, he said.

The program does some other things, like requiring guides to be U.S. citizens and allow the department to gather data through its fishing guide logbook program, Brookover said.

Heath Hilyard, one of Tilton’s staffers, testified at the meeting that the data the state collects is handed over to decision-making bodies that set the limits on how many fish are allotted to charters.

It’s this piece that seemed to draw the most support from the program from industry groups.

“That’s going to be a benefit to us in the long run,” said Andy Mezirow, owner of Cracker Jack Sport Fishing in Seward.

Rep. Lynn Gattis, R-Wasilla, said the data the program collects on sport fishing is important.

“When we’re looking at a depleted fishery like we have in the Mat-Su, we want to be able to gather the data, every bit of the data that’s out there,” she said, referencing low salmon returns that have in recent years led to widespread closures of area rivers and streams.

He and another sport fishing industry representative — Ryan Makinster, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Guide Association — noted that they’d heard some grumblings among guides about how the bill would double license fees.

Tilton said the program had been subsidized by the ADF&G budget before it expired. She said doubling the fees makes sure that the money from those fees cover the costs of administering the permits.

For his part, Makinster said, the fee increase isn’t a deal-breaker.

“The department can’t go into a negative fiscal situation, especially in these tight fiscal times,” he said.

Rep. Scott Kawasaki, D-Fairbanks, asked why the program was written with a sunset clause at all.

Rep. Mark Neuman, R-Big Lake, said he figured it was so that the program would have to come to the Legislature to get re-approved.

“They put the sunset date on it so it would come back to the Legislature, probably to see if it was working. Seems like it’s working to me,” Neuman said.

The bill moved out of the House Finance Committee on Friday. Its next stop is in the House Rules Committee.