Southeast fishermen approve permit buyback plan

KETCHIKAN (AP) — Southeast Alaska commercial fishermen have approved a $13 million plan to buy back 64 state permits for purse seine fishing to boost market conditions.

The region's seine permit holders voted 215-54 in favor of the “capacity reduction program” aimed at improving the economic viability of the remaining 315 permit holders. They voted from March 30 to April 30 in a referendum conducted by the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The buyback will be financed with a federal loan to be repaid over time by remaining permit holders.

“We were thinking it was going to be close,” Dan Castl...