Veteran commercial harvester Linda Behnken will be honored on Nov. 19 with the 25th Heinz Family Foundation Award for her advocacy for sustainable fishing practices and conservation policy while supporting rural fishing communities dependent on the ocean for their livelihood.
Behnken will be presented during a virtual ceremony, with an unrestricted cash award of $250,000 from the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania foundation.
Through collaboration with the industry, fisheries communities and private entities, Behnken has led harvesters and the staff of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association in their efforts to reduce the control large industrial fishing fleets have had over Alaska’s coastal waters, the Heinz Family Foundation said, in its announcement of the award.
Most notably, the foundation said, her work has effectively demonstrated that trough stewardship, training, the application of sound science, and changes in conservation policy, small boat fishermen can continue their livelihood and the ecosystem upon which her community and the fishing industry depend can be strengthened.
Behnken has been commercial fishing out of Sitka, in Southeast Alaska, since 1982, when she began fishing to earn money for college. After earning a master’s degree from Yale University, she returned to skipper her own boat, and has been active in commercial fisheries and fish politics since. She now fishes commercially with her husband and two sons.
Recently Behnken led collaborative efforts of Alaskans Own, the state’s first community supported fishery, with Northline Seafoods, to distribute 45,000 pounds of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon to residents of five Alaska Peninsula villages who gave up subsistence fishing this year after record low salmon returns to the Chignik area.
Alaskans Own then partnered with the Oregon-based Wave Foundation and the Armed Services YMCA of Alaska, in Anchorage, to help military families fill their freezers with 50,000 pounds of donated wild seafood.
“We’re so grateful to be able to support their service in this way and ensure that they have the chance to enjoy Alaska’s seafood bounty,” Behnken said.
During her years on the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, Behnken was a constant advocate for broad based management efforts of commercial fisheries that considered not only the individual fishery but the environment as a whole and the need for sharing the burden of conservation among all fishing groups.
Her efforts to bringing scientists and fishermen together led to formation of ALFA’s Fishery Conservation Network, which engages fishermen in collaborative research with scientists to address conservation challenges and improve the viability of small boat fishing. Current projects include rockfish bycatch monitoring to protect those species, and bathymetric mapping, which tracks the depth and topography below sea level, where ALFA has combined side-scan sonar data with fisherman-collected data to improve bycatch avoidance, assist stock assessment, minimize impacts to the sea floor habitat protection and increase viability of small scale fisheries. ALFA’s Sperm Whale Avoidance Project reduces interactions of fishing boats with sperm whales through satellite-tagging, sonar technology and fisherman reports.
ALFA’s Young Fishermen’s Initiative meanwhile works to help the next generation of fishermen through crew apprentice programs, skill-building workshops and low-risk loans. Behnken also co-founded the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, to help people new to commercial fishing overcome financial barriers to entry into their careers.
ALFA has also joined with the Fishing Communities Coalition to advocate for the Young Fishermen’s Development Act, to provide federal funding and support for training and education in sustainable fishing practices, marine stewardship, business practices and more.
“With fish populations declining, we have to be vigilant, as industrial fisheries have the potential to take all the fish available for harvest in the ocean,” Behnken said. “We are asking managers to address bycatch of king salmon, halibut and crab, and to protect these iconic and locally important species for Alaska. This battle is common around the country, where people are struggling to prevent family businesses and communities from becoming collateral damage to big industry, whether it’s farming or ranching or fishing. That is what we’re up against, and climate change has exacerbated that challenge.”
