Vol. 27, No. 4
April 2007
The Alaska Seafood Processing Leadership Institute (ASPLI) graduated 14 participants in March. The final activities for the group, all employed in processing, was a tour of cold-climate processors in Iceland and a visit to the International Boston Seafood Show. Chuck Crapo, Don Kramer, and Angela Camos were tour directors during the study trip.
MAP leader Paula Cullenberg says the yearlong ASPLI program was designed to build capacity of Alaskans in the seafood processing community, and foster leadership skills in the mentored participants. Plans are in the works to hold ASPLI every other year, and effort is ongoing to build partnerships with the seafood industry for the 2008 program. ASPLI was sponsored by the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development, through the Alaska Fisheries Revitalization Strategy; and the Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program.
MAP recently hired Glenn Haight as a fisheries business specialist. Based in Juneau, Haight will coordinate the MAP fisheries business project, including technical assistance to salmon fishermen. His work will be, in part, a follow-up to MAP's involvement with the Trade Adjustment Assistance Program. He will develop and teach seafood business workshops, work on fisheries and seafood projects, and coordinate and support efforts of several MAP faculty in seafood business activities.
He joins MAP after working for six years in fisheries development at the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. He also worked in the former Alaska Department of Community and Regional Affairs and as a financial intermediary. Haight has a business administration degree from the University of New Mexico, and a master's in international management from the American Graduate School of International Management. He can be reached at ffgeh1@uaf.edu.
Terry Gardiner, who has been on the Alaska Sea Grant Advisory Committee for three years, grew up in Southeast Alaska. His varied fisheries and leadership experiences make for an effective advisor for Sea Grant. "I have enjoyed serving on the group that has evaluated the research preproposals, and I was involved in the presentation to the National Sea Grant evaluation team that properly gave Alaska Sea Grant gold stars for a fine job!" says Gardiner.
Gardiner was a commercial fisherman as a young man, and helped create a fishing co-op as well as hatcheries. His public service career of twelve years started with election to the Alaska Legislature in 1972. He was Speaker of the House, Judiciary Committee chair, and chair of the Alaska Criminal Code Commission. He helped create the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, Alaska Commercial Fishing and Agriculture Bank, and Medical Indemnity Corporation.
Gardiner was a founder and CEO of Silver Lining Seafoods and NorQuest Seafoods. These companies developed specialty products for international markets from remote Alaska locations, creating new jobs, new markets, and new products.
Since the sale of NorQuest Seafoods in 2004 Gardiner has worked on health care reform, focusing on AIDS medicines for developing countries and U.S. health care systems.
In March, the Alaska King Crab Research and Rehabilitation Program held an informational tour of the Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery and the UAF Seward Marine Center. The program's goal is to learn whether hatchery cultivation can rebuild wild stocks of Kodiak red king crab and Pribilof blue king crab and to help restore fisheries.
Forty people attended the tour, including commercial fishermen and fishing industry advocates, agency officials, UA scientists and graduate students, and community government officials.
The highlight was seeing the program's first generation of red king crab larvae at the hatchery. Attendees heard from scientists and students engaged in larval feeding experiments and crab growth studies.
Partners include Alaska Sea Grant, United Fishermen's Marketing Association, Central Bering Sea Fishermen's Association, Aleutian-Pribilof Island Community Development Association, Alaska Crab Coalition, ADFG, NOAA Fisheries, Alutiiq Pride Shellfish Hatchery, Chugach Region Resources Commission, Gulf of Alaska Coastal Communities Coalition, Alaska SeaLife Center, and UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences and Seward Marine Center.
Brian Allee is setting up a UAF graduate student fellowship to honor Ole Mathisen, and is working to get financial contributions from industry. A long-time friend of Alaska Sea Grant, Ole Mathisen died March 12 at the age of 88. He earned his doctorate in fisheries from the University of Washington, and served on the faculty there and at the University of Alaska in Juneau. In 1994, he received the Noerenberg Award for Fisheries Excellence from the Alaska chapter of the American Fisheries Society, and was also professor emeritus at the University of Alaska. He was a friend, mentor, and scholar who influenced the lives of many people. If you are interested in contributing to a fellowship please contact Allee at brian.allee@sfos.uaf.edu.
Liz Brown, Don Kramer, Sunny Rice, Chuck Crapo, Sherri Pristash, and others organized the International Smoked Seafood Conference held in March. Over 100 people attended the three-day conference, and Brown, Kramer, and Crapo presented papers. Evaluations by attendees were very positive. Alaska Sea Grant hosted an educational product display, and will publish a proceedings book of the meeting in 2008.
Following the conference, 32 people attended a hands-on Smoked Seafood Workshop at Indian Valley Meats. Owner Doug Drum taught the class with input from Crapo and Kramer.
Torie Baker was asked to serve on the governing board of Litnaqtut College, in the Native Village of Eyak. Baker conducted an AMSEA survival suit and life raft course, and MAP cosponsored the Ice Worm Survival Suit Race at the Cordova winter festival.
Reid Brewer taught dissection at the Unalaska City High School. He hosted students from Akutan for a three-day workshop on intertidal monitoring, invertebrate diversity, and scuba diving. In addition, Brewer edited 50 abstracts for the Alaska Statewide High School Science Symposium.
Chuck Crapo is committee chair for graduate student Kamolluck Trateng, who works in Cooperative Extension food product development. Crapo gave a talk on salmon quality and adding value, at the California Salmon Council Board Meeting.
Terry Johnson spoke on customer satisfaction at a meeting of the Tourism Mentor Assistance Program. He also conducted an interagency meeting on responsible marine wildlife viewing, part of MAP's effort to establish a responsible marine wildlife viewing program and ethic.
Don Kramer taught HACCP to eleven people in Cordova, and to nine students at Indian Valley Meats.
Ray RaLonde, Quentin Fong, and Sunny Rice helped facilitate strategic planning for Alaska shellfish aquaculture, in partnership with OceansAlaska.
Rick Steiner gave a lecture on War and Environment at UAA. He made a presentation on Arctic Outer Continental Shelf Oil, and the Shipping Safety Partnership, to the Consultative Group of Biological Diversity in Oregon. Steiner also reviewed an oil spill contingency plan for Guinea Bissau.
Terry Reeve co-hosted workshops on business plan development. Nine students completed the course, from Hooper Bay, Chevak, Bethel, Quinhagak, and Mountain Village. The workshops included ecotourism and birding tour discussions.
RaLonde testified before the Alaska joint fisheries committee about HB 26 on the transport of geoduck clams to Prince William Sound. He also presented paralytic shellfish poisoning workshops during the ComFish show in Kodiak.
Sunny Rice was asked to serve as president of the Petersburg Economic Development Commission.
An additional $100,000 was bequeathed from Mrs. Lowell Wakefield to UAF, to provide support for Alaska Sea Grant's Wakefield Fisheries Symposium series. In 2000, she established the endowment with an initial gift of $100,000, to honor Wakefield's commitment to wise use of marine resources.