Besides mere catching there are other things that has to be consider in the business of fishing such as taxes to pay and boat maintenance to perform, constantly changing fish regulations and paying a crew, more commercial fishing operations are being run as small businesses than ever before. Therefore new fishermen now have al the training to under go to wade through maritime laws, income tax returns, retirement planning and much more at a workshop geared toward professionalizing Alaska’s commercial fishing operations.
The workshop name “The Business of Fish”, a free three-hour course, was held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Cook Inlet Aquaculture Building on Kalifornsky Beach Road. Glenn Haight, fisheries business specialist with the Alaska Sea Grant Marine
Advisory Program, said the workshop is aimed primarily for the new entrants into the commercial fishing sector, but will also be open to more experienced fishermen. According to him the programme is part of a statewide focus on commercial fisheries.
Haight told that the workshop will also discuss vessel maintenance and insurance, labour and crews and talk about the way the government gets involved with fisheries. He explained that the biggest thing is income tax, new fishermen should know what they’re going to have to file, what some of the deductions are and have a record of those things.
Paul Shadura, executive director of the Kenai Peninsula Fisherman’s Association, informed that there are a lot of rules and regulations that goes along with commercial fishing. Shadura also said that much of the information available at the Business of Fish workshop is acquired through years of trial and error.
