Committee adopts substitute for HB117 to add Cook Inlet administrative area and monitoring language

The Senate Resources Committee adopted a committee substitute for House Bill 117 on May 12 and voted to report the bill from committee with forthcoming fiscal notes.

Matt Greening, staff to Representative Louise Stutes, said the substitute removes the bill’s original set-net cooperative delivery language and instead adds the full text of Senate Bill 158, which creates a new administrative area for East Side set-netters in Cook Inlet. The substitute also clarifies electronic monitoring requirements by inserting the word “finfish” before “trawl” to make clear the requirement does not apply to shrimp or scallop fisheries.

Representative Louise Stutes, who represents Cordova, Kodiak and Seward among other coastal communities, said she supported the substitute despite disappointment that the original cooperative set-net language was removed; she told the committee she would continue stakeholder work over the interim to restore that element. Senator Jesse Bjorkman spoke in favor of the Cook Inlet administrative area for East Side set-netters, saying it supports local permit management.

Senator Wilikowski moved the committee substitute (version T) as the working document and then moved the bill from committee as amended; there was no objection. The committee directed legislative legal to make necessary technical and conforming changes and noted that fiscal notes would be forthcoming.

Next steps: HB117 proceeds with the substitute language and will return with updated fiscal notes and any further stakeholder refinements.