Alaska’s subsistence, sport and commercial fisheries are major contributors to the state’s economy and our frontier way of life. Alaska has the nation’s most abundant fisheries, with an annual catch of nearly 5 billion pounds for the past two decades and an economic output of almost $6 billion. Our continued success is the result of sound management that protects Alaska’s natural bounty while providing a good living for so many Alaskans. I’m committed to keeping our commercial, subsistence and sport fisheries strong.

Access to rich fish populations is a powerful economic engine in more than a hundred coastal communities, employing thousands of fishing vessels and tens of thousands of workers in the fishing, guiding and processing industry throughout Alaska.

Alaska’s fisheries are considered among the best managed in the world. The state and federal agencies that sustainably manage Alaskan fisheries have done so with science-based conservative catch limits, comprehensive catch accounting, a transparent public process and effective monitoring and enforcement.

I am a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and am on the Commerce, Justice and Science Appropriations Subcommittee, which oversees the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) budget, including NOAA fisheries. I have obtained funding for fisheries and marine mammal research and management, Yukon and Pacific Salmon Treaty implementation and, most recently, for the Yukon River Chinook salmon disaster, which was declared in January by the Secretary of Commerce.

I also sit on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee which oversees the U.S. Coast Guard’s budget, the service responsible for the monitoring and enforcement of fisheries, as well as providing search and rescue operations in Alaskan waters. I’ve continually fought to ensure the Coast Guard in Alaska is adequately funded so that it can carry out its mission of both protecting our waters and keeping Alaskans safe.

As well as obtaining funding, I also support Alaska’s fisheries and coastal communities with legislation.

Recently, a bill I sponsored, S. 3372, extended a two-year moratorium on a Clean Water Act permit for incidental discharges from commercial fishing vessels, including charter boats and other commercial vessels under 79 feet in length. The legislation extended the moratorium until December 2013 allowing time to work on a permanent exemption.

I introduced legislation to reform the Capital Construction Fund. This legislation will enable those with money in a capital construction account, which currently requires investment in major upgrades or new vessels, to make a one-time withdrawal and exit the program. They will be required to pay the taxes due, but not interest or other penalties, and can apply income averaging as well.

I’m engaged on a number of other issues that affect Alaska’s fisheries, including active engagement in the Endangered Species Act listings of the Western Population of Stellar Sea Lions, the Pacific Right Whale and the Cook Inlet Beluga Whale. I have provided comments to the National Ocean Policy Task Force on marine spatial planning and I am actively tracking the development of a national offshore aquaculture policy. I continue to advocate for regional stakeholder driven ocean policy and oppose any offshore fin fish aquaculture development that might impact wild fish stocks and markets.