Parnell drops the ball

Today is Christmas Eve. I wish you and your family all the joys and happiness from this holiday season. Please remember this is the holiday celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ; all the rest of the festivities have been added by society.

Enjoy the beautiful lights, the Christmas tree, the delightful squeals from little kids discovering their presents on Christmas morning and all the other sights and sounds we associate with the Christmas holiday — just don’t forget why we even have the holiday to begin with!

Let’s shift gears. The fisheries political world continues to be its usual controversial self. The governor has made a couple of moves recently that add to this controversy — one good and one questionable in the manner in which it was done.

The Alaska Journal of Commerce published an article on the Web dated Dec. 3 titled “Parnell to wade into Southcentral ‘fish wars’.” In it, Parnell called for two divisions within the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G), i.e., commercial fisheries and sport fish, to work more closely together to address management concerns that have plagued Southcentral, and especially the Cook Inlet area. The governor called for a “revamp (of) the structure of the separate divisions of sport and commercial fishing (which) he described as dueling ‘kingdoms’ within the department,” according to the article.

The governor stated, “Instead of segregating (commercial) fish and sport fish, I think we ought to be merging the data sets together and agreeing on baseline fisheries data. That’s what science is about. They shouldn’t be operating from different data sets and advocating for different data sets.”

If the two divisions move toward a merger, the big question will be funding. The Commercial Fisheries Division operates from general funds allocated to it by the Legislature. The Sport Fish Division operates almost exclusively from user fees (licenses, stamps, etc.) and from federal matching funds, which make up about 75 percent of the division’s revenue. The feds have very strict requirements and prohibitions on exactly how that money can be used, and managing a commercial fishery is not one of them.

Any true merger will be a difficult, long, uphill battle. In the interim, having the two agencies working hand-in-hand in researching and managing our fisheries resources will be a great improvement over the current status of how our resources are being handled.

The second issue is more of a gray area in my mind. Denby Lloyd retired as commissioner of ADF&G this past Dec. 1. The governor named Cora Campbell, the governor’s fisheries advisor, as acting commissioner until a list of candidates could be forwarded to him by the Joint Boards of Fish and Game, as required by statute, for his final selection of the new commissioner. This is one time the governor is not free to select just anybody. The law requires him to make a selection from the list of candidates the Joint Boards have forwarded through their screening process, or to request more names if he is unhappy with the field of names initially provided.

I have been following this process through some fisheries industry blogs I have come to find quite reliable and through conversations with others “in the know” in the fisheries arena. That’s how it’s supposed to work, except the governor had already publically announced he wanted Cora Campbell to be his new permanent commissioner.

This announcement has effectively undercut and totally subverted the process, set in law, about how the ADF&G commissioner is to be appointed. How so? First, by publically announcing his choice before the deadline for applications was reached, it’s probable the field of applicants was significantly reduced because who wants to apply for a job he or she has no chance of getting?

Second, the governor appoints members of the Boards of Fish and Game. Those terms run three years. The governor has been elected to a four-year term. In the course of those four years, he will have appointed or reappointed every member of both boards. Denying the governor his hand-picked commissioner would not likely result in a reappointment to a board seat for those interested in continuing on either board. See any intimidation factor here?

Is Campbell qualified to be commissioner? She is a bright person with years of experience working in the fisheries industry for government and the private sector. Unfortunately, from my perspective, all that experience has been in the commercial fisheries sector. She is a good listener, but it remains to be seen how much listening is translated into practical correction and improvement of situations.

Campbell has no specific biological training in terms of population dynamics, genetics, or some of the other technical aspects of professional biological management and research. Only one other person has ever been appointed ADF&G commissioner with no scientific background. She has never worked for ADF&G and does not have the same “insider” perspectives a long-time employee would have in understanding the nuances of divisional interactions. She has no formal background that I know of in dealing with wildlife issues.

Not all of the negatives I’ve listed are necessarily bad. A fresh look from “outsider” eyes might be just the ticket if a major merger of divisions is being contemplated. I’m going to reserve my judgment on her qualifications. I find it unfortunate she will be commissioner because of the governor’s mishandling of the process rather than because she is the best qualified for the job.

Howard Delo is a retired fisheries biologist with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game. You can leave him a message by e-mailing sports@frontiersman.com.