A Cause For Celebration

MAJOR MILESTONE A Cause for Celebration

2020 also marked a major milestone for CVRF: ten years of owning and operating The Northern Hawk, our fleet’s flagship vessel. In 2010, the addition of this 341-foot-long catcher-processor factory trawler enabled CVRF to stop leasing its CDQ quota out and establish its own fishing operation in the Bering Sea.

Since then, CVRF has invested the revenue from its fishing business back into its communities, using those resources to fund an ever-expanding list of local jobs, regional programs and community benefits. CVRF worked throughout the year to identify new ways to expand the region’s fishing business and to build partnerships with industry leaders, regional corporations and other CDQ groups. In the spirit of expansion and partnership, CVRF negotiated an agreement that enabled BBEDC and CVRF, together with their member villages, to jointly buy the Mariner Companies fleet, including seven crab vessels and significant crab quota shares. Fishing for the village owned crab began in early 2021. As a result of this cooperative purchase, 37 communities represented by CVRF and BBEDC in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta and Bristol Bay regions now own 3% of the total opilio and red king crab quota in the Bering Sea. Going forward, CVRF and BBEDC will work together to catch and process the crab quota with crab revenue going directly to the villages that own the quota. The newly formed Community Quota Share (CQS) Program will provide significant opportunities for our residents by fueling continued economic development in Western Alaska.