What is AFA?
The American Fisheries Act is a congressional law passed in 1998 that brought several changes to the Alaska pollock industry. Foremost it was intended to rid America’s waters of foreign processors. The Act also eliminated several pollock vessels from the Bering Sea and allowed for processing sectors to form cooperatives. These cooperatives are able to assign harvest quotas to members within the cooperative based on catch history. As the cooperatives increased yields and decreased bycatch during pollock fisheries, they also effectively assign harvesting and processing rights to Alaska’s largest fishery. In 1998, the percentage of total Bering Sea harvest and value of pollock by vessels that registered a corporate or owner address in Alaska was 0.34%. By 2000, those numbers rose slightly to 1.1%. Harvest and earnings for vessels registered with corporate or owner addresses out of Alaska is upwards of 98%. CDQ corporations may own more than 10% of the total processing and harvesting capac
