Alaska Board of Fish Proposals 1959-2016

Every three years, the Alaska Board of Fish (Board) calls for regional fisheries management proposals, inviting the public to directly participate in fisheries governance. Anyone can submit a proposal and provide written or oral testimony on any of the proposals, which constitute potential regulatory changes and are accessible in an online proposal book. Proposals are logged by Board staff and recorded in the meeting documents, which are stored online and archived at the State, Library, Archives, and Museum (SLAM) in Juneau. Each proposal contains valuable information about stakeholder demographics, affiliations, interests, and positions on allocation disputes. Alaska's inclusion of stakeholders in its decision-making process began in 1959, decades before researchers, managers, and politicians began advocating for increased stakeholder involvement in fisheries management. Stakeholder participation is now lauded as a key component to successful fisheries management, but little data exists that characterizes and assesses this participation. Using integrated data digitization and coding methods, this database quantifies stakeholder participation in Alaska's fisheries management.