INSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS.

UAA ISER

A forecast for the Alaska economy in 2022 anticipates approximately the same level of growth as in 2021, up about 2.2 percent, or 7,000 new jobs. That would leave the state nearly 14,000 shy of where jobs were before the COVID-19 pandemic, yet federal infrastructure spending could entirely make up the difference. In his first forecast in two years, Mouhcine Guettabi, formerly of the UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research (ISER), concludes that a full recovery this year depends on the first billion dollars of IIJA funds being deployed quickly, provided the construction sector has the capacity to mobilize.

iseralaska.org

North Pacific Fishery Management Council

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to switch halibut bycatch for Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish trawlers to an abundance-based limit. The trawl fleet is currently capped at no more than 1,745 metric tons of halibut incidentally snagged while fishing for sole or yellowfin sole. The cap has remained fixed for years while halibut abundance decreased steadily since 1990. The new method would lower the limit to 1,309 metric tons--slightly higher than the average annual bycatch-and float based on abundance surveys by the International Pacific Halibut Commission and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The new bycatch limit is scheduled to be implemented either in mid-2023 or the beginning of the 2024 fishing season.

npfmc.org

Alaska Division of Agriculture

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the Alaska Division of Agriculture's plan for industrial hemp production. The Division of Agriculture drafted state regulations in 2019, and USDA approval aligns those regulations as a permanent program, in compliance with federal law. Hemp is the same species of plant as cannabis, used recreationally as marijuana, but the industrial variety has less of the psychoactive chemical THC. The production, manufacture, and sale of all industrial hemp products require registration with the Division of Agriculture or risk immediate enforcement action.

plants.alaska.gov/industrialhemp.htm

Tlingit & Haida

The Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska received a license from the Federal Communications Commission's for a 2.5 GHz Rural...