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House fisheries committee recommends Tom Carpenter be forwarded to joint session for Board of Fisheries reappointment
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Summary
The House Special Committee on Fisheries reviewed Tom Carpenter’s service on the Alaska Board of Fisheries and, after public testimony in support, recommended forwarding his name to a joint session for confirmation.
The House Special Committee on Fisheries recommended April 24 that Thomas “Tom” Carpenter’s name be forwarded to a joint session for confirmation to the Alaska Board of Fisheries.
Carpenter, who told the committee he lives in Cordova and has served on the board for three years, highlighted his tenure as vice chair and his recent work chairing a Herring Revitalization Committee and serving on the Alaska Salmon Research Task Force. "I served as the vice chair for the board of fisheries for the last 2 years," Carpenter said. "We created a Herring Revitalization Committee, which I chaired, and we held several meetings to look at the herring issues around the state."
The committee’s recommendation came after roughly a half-hour of remarks from Carpenter and more than a dozen public commenters from across the state who expressed support. Katie Harms, a Juneau resident and executive director of Douglas Island Pink and Chum (DIPAC), told the panel Carpenter is “the only current board member who resides in a community whose major economic driver is fishing” and urged continued coastal representation. "Please consider rediversification of the board by not adding any more members from the railbelt," Harms said. Other callers and in-room speakers from Kodiak, King Cove, Kenai and Bristol Bay also testified in favor, citing Carpenter’s mediation and work on complex regulations.
Carpenter described specific regulatory work to the committee. He said he helped craft an action plan for the Nushagak River to better protect king salmon while allowing sockeye harvests, and that he played a major role establishing a Kvichak Special Harvest Area to give the Alaska Department of Fish and Game additional tools for managing low predicted returns. "We created the Kvichak Special Harvest Area, which will give the department the tool necessary to do that," he said.
Representative Edgmon formally moved the committee recommendation. The motion read in part: "The House Special Committee on Fisheries has reviewed the qualifications of the governor's appointee, Thomas Carpenter, to the Alaska Board of Fisheries, and recommends that his name be forwarded to a joint session for confirmation." Hearing no objections, the chair announced the recommendation would be forwarded; the committee did not record a roll-call vote on the motion. The committee also reminded members that signing the report is an administrative step and does not bind members’ votes in any subsequent joint-session confirmation vote.
Why it matters: The Board of Fisheries sets statewide regulations that affect subsistence, commercial, sport and personal-use fisheries. Committee members and public witnesses framed Carpenter’s reappointment as important for conflict resolution among user groups and for bringing experience from a fishing-dependent community to board deliberations.
The committee closed public testimony on Carpenter’s nomination after hearing from a mix of commercial, charter and community representatives. The committee’s next business item was the confirmation hearing for another appointee, and no formal objections to Carpenter’s recommendation were recorded during the session.
Meeting context: The Carpenter hearing was part of a broader meeting that included a second Board of Fisheries confirmation and consideration of House Bill 199; the session began at 10:03 a.m. and adjourned at 11:40 a.m.
