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Lawmakers press CanFisco ties after advisory council membership; company and council chair respond
Summary
Representative Dan McCabe and others raised constituent concerns about CanFisco's ownership ties and whether industry influence existed on the bycatch advisory body; council chair Megan O'Neil and former chair Linda Kozak responded with ownership clarifications and an offer to provide documentation.
Representative Dan McCabe raised constituent concerns at the May 1 House Special Committee on Fisheries meeting about whether CanFisco or related entities own trawl vessels and whether that ownership created a conflict for advisory work on bycatch.
"The chairman that you appointed to this task force has a huge vested interest in the trawl fishery," McCabe said, relaying constituent emails that expressed concern about industry influence in the task force process.
Megan O'Neil, chair of the Bycatch Advisory Council and director of government affairs for CanFisco Group, told the committee that CanFisco owns multiple shoreside processing plants but "we don't have any ownership in any vessels." She offered to send the fisheries committee a letter explaining CanFisco’s ownership structure. Linda Kozak added context noting CanFisco operates several Alaska processing plants and that trawl vessels are not allowed to be foreign owned under Alaska law.
The exchange prompted committee members to discuss conflict-of-interest rules and recusal practices at regulatory boards. McCabe said constituents had expected the task force to address their questions at earlier meetings and asked for follow-up documents; O'Neil agreed to provide written clarification for the committee.
The committee did not take formal action on the matter during the session.
