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The Highliner

Commercial fishing is a bedrock industry in Alaska, and has been for more than a century. Every year scores of fishermen net millions of migrating salmon, challenge the icy Bering Sea to trap king crabs, lay miles and miles of baited hooks for halibut, and scoop up enough pollock for a zillion fish sticks. And when fishermen aren't out fishing, they're usually talking about fishing. That's what this blog is all about. Cast your net here for commercial fishing news and notes. And if you've got a bone to pick, post a comment.

About me:
I've pounded the commercial fishing beat for the Anchorage Daily News since 1999. I hail originally from Tennessee. I've never fished commercially, but I've spent much time as a journalist aboard boats and inside fish-processing plants. Of course, I'm a big consumer of Alaska seafood. One of my favorites: canned sockeye.

Contact Wesley Loy at wloy@adn.com.

Council member to step down

Posted by The Highliner

Posted: September 13, 2007 - 5:03 pm

Ed Rasmuson, a former Anchorage banker, has informed Gov. Sarah Palin he will resign from the North Pacific Fishery Management Council effective Jan. 1.

And he's got some suggestions for his replacement.

Click here to read his letter to the governor.

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8 May 6, 2008 - 4:17pm | porn

dede

7 October 6, 2007 - 10:03am | pdjep

A small number of canny

A small number of canny well-to-do influential volunteer "policy" makers have made large incursions on the North Pacific fisheries management regime, a regime whose backbone is made up of commercial fishing communities and the citizens they represent. It is easy to throw out a red herring, Seattle fleet versus coastal Alaska fleet. However, the real issue is sport fish industry versus commercial fishing industry and subsistence/personal uses of local coastal communities.
Most financial institutions have turned their backs on the commercial fishing fleet and have opened deep pockets to sport fish interests. The fisheries revitalization recovery by our Congressional delegation and the State of Alaska have restored commercial fishing has the mainstay to coastal economies. The evidence is now clear that fisheries management failure to tighten up controls to sport fish growth and over harvest of fisheries resources is endangering the livelihood of Alaska’s coastal communities.

6 September 18, 2007 - 9:18am | AkGov

He was a real Alaskan Council member.

I have been attending the NPFMC for many years and have seen many council members come and go over the years. Ed Rasmuson was not the most knowledgeable or most hard working council member I have ever seen, but I will tell you this, he was the most honest and truly Alaskan motivated I’ve seen for many years.

He stood up for Alaska first and foremost when making a decision. It seemed that he tempered all his decisions based on what is best for our State and not his pocket book.

Thanks for the service you put forth......

September 18, 2007 - 4:58pm | staufen

It's a federal council.

Of course he didn't act for his pocketbook, he's busy giving money away - but not to any cause that would stop the foreign hegemony and kleptocracy in fisheries -- though he knows well who they are (Crewmen's Association, Groundswell, etc.) And though we agree Ed "talked Alaskan" (a parrot could do that!) he never did the most important thing for Alaska - obey the constitutional requirement to maximize the commonwealth, never addressed the problems of foreign ownership, and was a typical vote counter. What Alaska needs is someone who will DO the right thing, MAKE the motion regardless of the vote outcome, put the truth on the federal record. Trying doesn't cut it: there is only DO!

Show us one letter where he writes Senator Stevens, Cong. Young and Pombo, and says NO! to the rigging of the game for the oligarchs and we'll kiss Ed's shoe! (Hell, it is probably sanitized anyway.)... and open the limo door for him...

Let's place a bet on whether he shows up for both the October and December meetings now!

Groundswell Fisheries Movement

5 September 16, 2007 - 12:28pm | akwapsc

Thanks for the service, Mr. Rasmussen

Although not all of our personal sport-commfish philosophies align, we see eye to eye on the vast majority of issues that affect Alaskan commercial fishermen.

Along with the service from his father, Elmer Rasmussen, the overall committment to coastal Alaska and our economies has been unparralleled from one of the founding families of Anchorage.

No doubt, countless commfish businesses have been impacted by their relationship, one way or another, with the former National Bank of Alaska....

In any event, this is one of the major business and philanthropical families that Alaska has or ever will see.

Hats off to a great man and best of luck in post-Council retirement....

bobbyt

September 17, 2007 - 4:13pm | staufen

Again, you silver-spooned it all...

with a giant sucking sound.

September 16, 2007 - 11:48pm | jtgranger

Hey bobbyt, You still got those sunglasses on at night?

I notice that Rassmussen committment to coastal villages, that your discussing seems to disagree with that letter from J. Bruce McDonald at that big fancy building, held at the Commerce Committee of that Confused U.S. Senate Chamber. Deputy McDonald seems to also disagree about your vision of facts, bobbyt. I'd bet, as usual, he didn't attend that Willamette Law School for those who can't read bobbyt.

That Big Eagle of Liberty, on this Deputys Badge, talking about facts, seem to always confuse you bobbyt? Is all that black and white writing truly that confusing?

At?

http//www.usdoj.gov/atr/public/testimony/202572/.htm

You could be right about unparrallelled committment of those fishing villages, however anyone who reads the letter, would most likely disagree with you on your theories of great men.

Get that prescription checked bobbyt, I think your vision's a bit blocked.

And Poor Old Elmer, he should have smacked his dipshit kid a few more times with a stick, with all those terms like "artificial marketplaces" that a intellegent banker should understand.

Of course with those Stevens Boys, vision of their Market Place of Ideas, who' knows what will find out, coming soon to another big fancy Federal Building near you.

I notice that Older Newspaper man, William Randolph Hurst, ran those stories across the Nation, on September 17, 1908. They say Teddy was very happy bobbyt. He loved that big stick, he really did with that "square deal." Inventing the term in Montana, when those silver scales for Justice were given as a gift from some Union boys. That were United, not like your vision of that term either bobbyt.

Of course real Republicans like Teddy who invented the FBI, and really hated corrupt politicians like you bobbyt.

It's not a confusing story, and now it only takes 99 years, for history to repete itself.

Hearst revealed the existance of letters between Senator Foraker and Standard Oil's John D. Archbold, going back over a period of years, that amounted to black and white proof of a senotorial purchase. Sums as large as 50 Grand, (that's 1908 dollars) were itimitized as "fees" and "payments" for vague legal services and "understandings" that clearly involved legislation.
And then the daddy of them all, that Mansion remodel of $150,000.00 of the Senators Washington D.C. home. Senator Foraker was overnight a "dead man walking." And Theodore Roosevelt was very, very, happy. Why do those Alaska Senators work so cheap, bobbyt? They remind me of your United group, fishin for tuition?

I guess your Uncle Ted, missed out, on the real Uncle Teddy's history lesson. Where did he go to school at?

"How the President does enjoy a fight where there is need of one." James Garfield wrote in his diary.
"Dixie, after all had never been GOP territory."

Ever read those Pulitzer Prize Books Bobbyt, Non Fiction's always been my favorite, when will you learn how to write some?

Hey bobbyt, I notice George picked that new Attorney General, and former Federal Judge from New York.
Ever been to Long Island and Teddy's stomping ground's?
I guess he's the Courts King, of Killing Corrupt Politicians.
I'd bet he read Teddys records too of those dirty politicians he destroyed in that state too.

It IS a perfect world, bobbyt! Teddy also studied General George Washington. #1
"Truth will ultimately prevail, where there are steps taken to bring it to light."

Could be an intellegent lawyer to run that Big Department, with the Eagle of Liberty, Surrounding that Serpant of Corruption.

Those Grand Old Parties, really arn't very confusing bobbyt, and could you please quite writing like a dimmycrate?

September 18, 2007 - 6:52pm | peter1

Truth stranger than fishin'

If you can handle Pulitzer authors, try the #1 Alaska commentary "Russian America: The Great Alaskan Venture", by H. Chevigny. Discover that Icelanders were very late Johnny-come-lately's to Petersburg and to Alaska groundbreaking.

Did you know it was another Senator Stevens, Thad. no less, who reneged on his word to make good on Alaska's purchase? Senator Thaddeus, Chairman, Appropriations Committee, 1867.

This is a fun romp through the gulag politics that "gave Alaska to Jr"., stretching back to 10th century Novgorod, and the cut-throat frontiersman that really did discover and settle Siberia and Alaska. Not for the faint of heart or pompous Alaska-talkers...

September 16, 2007 - 12:40pm | TruthforAlaska

Ras

If Bobbyt backs him you know he's a crook!

September 16, 2007 - 1:09pm | jtgranger

And Wells Fargo?

Looks like he found that fast stage, out of Dodge City!

With Wyatt Earp, and the rest of those U.S. Marshall's, standing by, in the Founders Anchorage Courthouse, is he also on the way, to go see Frank the Bank too?

4 September 15, 2007 - 9:31am | jtgranger

The Council that failed their reading comprehension class?

Or was that term (per se) also too confusing to the Council, as it was to the Senate Commerce Committee??? In that letter from the Anti-Trust division at Justice?

Of course when your dictionary comes from the Clinton Library, with the troubling two letter word like "IS" and "IF" such a long word like "per se" would truly confuse this Council.

Of course "per se" to many isn't really that big of a word.

The definition in every Blacks Law Dictionary since 1890, could only confuse a true Dixie Democrat.

per se; See Sherman Act of 1890. (R)

See; Older Brother (R) Burnt Atlanta to the Ground, as he "Marched to the Sea"

See; Founding Fathers, and Rodger Sherman, (R) with his friends, John Adams (W?), Benjamin Franklin (R), Robert Livingston, (R) and Thomas Jefferson's (R) "Committee of Five."

And it's magic, they all "March to the Sea" too.

Woops? That confusing Commerce Clause,

Not really, unless your another confused and drunk Alaskan.

Or was Justice Frankfurter also wrong writing for the majority, with Alaska's Territorial ignorance in this exact same subject from 1789.

As Jay Hammond, and every Governor behind him.

Woop's, some things never change, since 1867.

September 15, 2007 - 12:44pm | staufen

As in don't do Crab Ratz

(don't give public resource rights into the hands of only a few global corporations to control/own forever) or otherwise privatize the federally-managed but internationally "owned" resources within the US 200-nautical mile Exclusive Economic Zone.

Ted Stevens has been outed this past week by two self-avowed/confessed felons as being someone they gave undeclared income to (work on Ted's Girdwood home, which was not put in the tax basis of the property) - essentially saying Ted accepted a bribe or kickback. Use the word alleged, if it makes you feel more comfortable, but hairsplitting should not prevent the U.S. Senate from asking for Ted's resignation within days.

When the Jewish Defense League asked he be removed from all Appropriations power -- before Friday's revelations in sworn testimony by VECO execs -- it was easily decoded as Israel wants a new player in place now, for its national security.

This simple test should not be one the Senate flunks.

Then, Congress should remove the confusion over "per se" violations of Antitrust. Check out Lu Dochtermann's letter about likely losing his crab market of 21 years - a letter republished on AlaskaReport dot com.

Per se - by, in, or of itself; intrinsically (in violation of anti-Trust tenets) I.E. the rich should not do so with grants of governmental exclusive and predatory rights.

Territorial Alaska = backstabbers, claimjumpers and pickpockets -- just like the NPFMC/Ted Stevens/Sec'ys of Commerce have been all throughout the "rationalization" regime shifts.

Also a per se violation of WTO Subsidy rules, as Ratz grant global trade rights to a few exclusive corporations at the present day, forever excluding other Nation's firms from participating in acquiring those global resources.

Ted's worse than a drunk Alaskan - he's a DC politician on green-blood steroids.

September 15, 2007 - 3:30pm | jtgranger

"He's a gr'reat man, an the

"He's a gr'reat man, an the thing I like best about him is that in th' dark ye can hardely tell him fr'm a Dimmycrat."

Seems Ted, should have studied up on Teddy Roosevelt, TR, and the Talented Republican.

Like Teddy's friend, Ambassador James Brice, reminding his government that;

"Combinations in the restraint of trade are contrary to the common law since Henry II... and all find their political parallels in the Middle Ages."

Ted, an Article I, member confused with his Section 6?

Is the Article II, member confused with his section 4?

We know the Article III members are not confused with their Section 3?

Is Treason also confusing to Ted, or is Felony, and Bribery a high Crime, not a misdemeanor also confusing another Dimmycrate with a reading comprehension problem.

Those square deals, Teddy invented in Montana, with those "silver scales" seem to confuse Ted, and his Bastard Child.

But that's ok, Henry II, had a Bastard Child too.

It's a genetic defect for those dimmycrats wearing the R, in disguise.

3 September 14, 2007 - 2:29pm | adnak

Ed involved?

There is so much singing going on in Juneau courtrooms it sounds like a freakin' opera.
Smith and Allen just fingered Ben and Ted, Cowdery too.
Sweet music, and we are a long way from the Fat Lady belting out cleanup.
It ain't over yet, and the music sounds so good.

2 September 14, 2007 - 11:07am | volcanoman

Insight

Well K.Krab,
How about Ed, Trevor and Jeremiah with maybe a little Sea Life Center in the mix?

September 17, 2007 - 7:35am | kodiakkrab

Anyone here have the intelligence to actually discuss an issue

Y'all remind me of a bunch of half-drunk kids sitting around a campfire trying to impress each other throwing around nouns and verbs and making noise without actually engaging in deep fact based debate. What a waste of time.

September 17, 2007 - 3:56pm | staufen

Challenge accepted.

You waste everyone's time, then accuse others of it - you're a classic dysfunctional, and you enjoy it, or you'd have gone away already; but instead just crony-cry "this isn't fun anymore." Fine, go away.

Or let's collectively accept your challenge:

We've gone first -- for over a decade -- on why Abusive Transfer Pricing is behind the annual loss of up to $2 billion from the Alaskan commfish economy, and far more from the remaining sectors as multiplier effects are denied due to this global profit laundering. And if you are in any way a fisherman or supplier or even a processor, you'd benefit huge if the practices of illicit accounting were halted.

Now, you go second. Identify yourself, your role in fisheries, and tell us why you refuse to join the effort to recover the missing billions by addressing ATP's economic devastation ~i.e. do you support this resource theft that harms all Alaskans and the Nation?, if so, Why?

What do you think should be done about US-dock pollock prices that have been 1/4 to 1/3 of what the same fish sold for across Yokohama docks? What do you think about the coercive crab monopolies' failure to do value-added products? Please go beyond the obvious ~ i.e. that standardized products make it far easier to discipline price-fixing behavior among cartelized players and hide profits offshore so that American fishermen do not get their fair share. And what are you doing for the sake of all, not just personal greed?

Don't forget to explain that the 'revered' Rasmusons and NBofA understood as early as 1979 that the Japan Ministry of Finance backed plan was to deliberately destroy the opportunities for domestic (USA) banks to participate in the North Pacific seafood industry, especially because of the use of global strategies such as ATP -- falsifying their books. Please explain your thoughts about the failures of NBA to challenge this global profit laundering/tax evasion and economic treason. Their failure and Ted's cost the good people of the State of Alaska many BILLION$! And while you are at it, delve into why this was probably a violation of the bank board's responsibility to all shareholders. And answer if you can whether or not federal monies in any way flowed into the Rasmuson Foundation (even if earlier through NBA) as there are investigators wanting to know. And why didn't cowardly Ed Rasmuson ever make a motion while on the fish Council to halt the discriminatory CDQ programs, or increase Gulf of Alaska observer coverage? Is this because in FACT he co-owns a racehorse with Ted, Allen, and a whole lot of shady characters?

While you are at it, how about enlightening us with how you feel about the deep fact based non-debate that Ted Stevens is crooked -- and has been since before statehood? Why do you want to live under such fascist control? And how are you going to feel when he becomes a convicted or plea-bargained criminal?

Indeed, let's face FACTS! Put up or shut up! But you might have to use actual nouns, adjectives and verbs like keptocracy, shoplifting, disaster capitalism, oligopsonistic practices, and having a plantation mentality, in order to give meaning to the real facts.

PS: While we are traveling on your deeper discussion of the FACTS: What do you think about the recent courtroom-testimonial and evidence-established FACT that Bill Allen and Rick Smith identified Ted as recipient of what is likely a kickback or bribe, and at the least tax evasion?

What about the FACT that Kott was paid to pitch Ted a rigged question (while 'federal' Ted was interceding at the State Legislature during session!) re the oil and gas bills, so that Ted's scripted answer would satisfy the oil companies that Allen was talking to on a daily basis? Isn't it now obvious that Ted, Kott, and Big Oil executives should be prosecuted under RICO?

Groundswell Fisheries Movement ~ for the citizen-taxpayers and real fishermen who deserve an honest day's pay, and Alaskans who have lost billion$ to cronyism.

September 17, 2007 - 12:12pm | jtgranger

How about that Commerce Clause kodiakkrab?

September 17, 1787?

Thats 220 years ago TODAY?

The Constitution of the United States was compleated and signed by the majority of the delegates in attendance in Philadelphia. With Rodger Sherman in attendance with Benjamin Franklin too.

Is that "Deep Enough Fact Base Debate"

Or would you like the deeper version of Commerce Clauses from Prince William's line of 1066, and his heir, Henry II, and King Johns version of 1215? Under that bulletproof glass, at the Treasures Gallery of the British Library, and extraordinary place on Londons Euston Road.
Even those French School children are a bit less boisterious in front of it.

I guess they don't leave their children behind in France, as they all know where Prince William sailed from.

And if you need to deeper still, you could go to Philadelphia, on that hill under King Herod, at about 0006 A. D. and learn about that earlyer type of Commerce if that version from Philadelphia, not modern enough.

Of course Rodger Sherman's modern version in our Glorious Declaration is also written pretty clearly kodiakkrab.

"For cutting off our Trade with all Parts of the World."

Seems that crabber, may need to write that new Attorney General.

I'm sure it just a simple confusion of though, it really dosen't matter what fleet it is when they have those president's like boobyt, now does it?

Get that navagation chart out since you wan't to get deeper, and look at the modern name in Jordan, of Ar-Rabbah, the older Phalidelphia.

Didn't they also have some sort of "March to the Sea" a bit further back in that history book too?

Or do we still need to go deeper, kodiakkrab?

1 September 13, 2007 - 7:03pm | staufen

Missing Link (pls insert it)

And that's an appropriate comment, too.

Maybe he can be replaced with a foal from Ed's, Ted's, Bill's, et al's racehorse. The floor under that council seat would become all the cleaner.

Groundswell Fisheries Movement

September 14, 2007 - 10:45am | kodiakkrab

You Are The Misiing Link!

Try something insightful rather than scatalogical next time.

September 15, 2007 - 2:13am | staufen

Just as ER's highbrow hubris commands the governor to ignore the proper legal process at Boards and Commissions to do his bidding, your yellow-bellied anger causes misspellings.

Insightful enough?

PS: how much longer will you post, given that even Bobby T had to give up... When's your pending indictment obvious, too?

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Council member to step down