Alaska accuses prominent Kodiak family of widespread fishing permit fraud
A Bristol Bay sockeye salmon "mob" gathers in August 2004 in the Wood River, which flows into the Nushagak River just north of Dillingham. (Photo by Thomas Quinn/, University of Washington)
State prosecutors have accused Kodiak fisher Duncan Fields and other members of his family of defrauding the state and fish buyers through a coordinated scheme that involved committing perjury and manipulating permits.
Court documents filed Monday state that Fields and his family, who operate Fields and Sons Inc., illegally earned more than $1 million by temporarily transferring various salmon setnet permits to crew members, allowing the family to bypass state limits on individual ownership.
Fields, whose family has been setnetting in Kodiak since 1961, denied the state's claims, saying by text that the 'charges stem from the gifting of limited entry permits to family and crew, something my family and I have done for more than 30 years. This is a common practice in the industry, and we believe that our family has been singled out to try to set an example with a unique application of existing statutes. The charges are not supported by the facts.'
The criminal accusations against the Fields family — which include multiple felonies — surprised fishers and have implications beyond Kodiak.
To avoid the appearance of impropriety, Rep. Louise Stutes, R-Kodiak, has paused work on House Bill 117, which would allow setnet fishers to pool their fish as a cooperative before sending them to a fishing tender for processing.
Stutes, co-chair of the House Fisheries Committee, introduced the bill.
Current regulations require each permit holder to submit their fish to a tender separately, but setnet fishers, including Fields, have testified that is impractical and has never been followed in practice.
The investigation against Fields, which revealed fish pooling, prompted Alaska wildlife troopers to intensify enforcement of the regulation across the state, causing setnetters to ask for legislative action.
'It wasn't Duncan that brought this issue to us, but he's right in the middle of it, and so I just feel like it's better to stand down on that bill for now,' Stutes said, calling the bill unrelated to the accusations against Fields.
According to court documents and legislative testimony, the charges against the Fields family stem from a 2023 message given to the Alaska Wildlife Troopers by the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission.
'In 2023, the AWT received information about a set gillnet operation reportedly transferring ownership of permits at high frequency and delivering/selling fish under the names of one or two primary permit holders on behalf of other permit holders,' wrote Col. Bryan Barlow, director of the Alaska Wildlife Troopers, in legislative testimony.
Alaska's 'limited entry' permit system was intended to reduce overharvesting while preserving local harvests.
In Kodiak, a permit holder 'may operate no more than two set gillnets, with no more than 150 fathoms of set gillnets,' according to state regulation.
Prosecutors say that to get around the restriction, members of the Fields family would gift setnet permits to crew members each fishing season, and then the crew members would gift them back to the Fields family at the end of the fishing season, retaining custody.
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The state argues in its initial filing that the gifts violated a state law that says a permit 'may not be pledged, mortgaged, leased, or encumbered in any way, transferred with any retained right of repossession or foreclosure, or on any condition of requiring a subsequent transfer.'
'As part of their investigation, wildlife investigators interviewed approximately twenty-one individual crewmembers who had permits transferred to them between 2020 and 2023,' court documents state. 'Additionally, they reviewed numerous commercial fishing documents to include permit transfer paperwork, crew member applications, crewmember contracts, gift affidavits, fish ticket data and other relevant paperwork for each individual.'
Stutes, who represents the district that includes the Fields' setnet sites, gave credit to the CFEC for alerting police.
'You really have to give CFEC some kudos for catching it, saying 'Whoa, what's going on here? There's been too many transfers.' I'm really impressed with them,' she said. 'It tells me the system does work.'
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