"Now, from the rubble of the Japan earthquake and tsunami, a golden opportunity has offered itself to Alaska or Alaska Native corporations to buy the Japanese fish processing assets in Alaska and take control of the pollock fishery.

Don't like the bycatch numbers? Take less. Don't like bycatch being thrown overboard? Backhaul them.

Or get the regulations changed to have a multi-species fisheries where bycatch is present.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for an Alaska resource to return to the hands of Alaskans.

Certainly 8(a) contracts have been very beneficial and extremely lucrative, but the program can go away with the stroke of a pen. Or one day the news might read that it is considered an "entitlement" and in line for budget cuts like Social Security or Medicare.

There are those in Congress who disapprove of the Native American and Alaska Native no-bid contracts. They are not going to go away, and ANCs will have to return to Washington year after year to testify and justify."

Get the Story:
Dimitra Lavrakas: Quake brings chance for ANCs to invest in pollock (The Seward Phoenix Log 4/28)