Behind the Scenes

Natural resource development and matters of sustainability aren’t always the wildly opposing concepts they’re often made out to be. The industry highlighted on this month’s cover of Alaska Business is a testament to this notion. Marine aquaculture, or farmed seafood, is the harvesting of plants and animals in aquatic environments—and it’s finally beginning to bloom.

According to a leading institute for applied research, Nofima, farming fish uses less greenhouse gas emissions than land-based farming practices. But it doesn’t stop there; aquaculture also means year-round jobs, food security, improved coastal resilience, and a vibrant cover for our November issue.

Photography from National Geographic Image Collection

lockchain, an innovative virtual distributed ledger system, is one of today’s most cutting-edge technologies. The technology’s key ingredient is its element of traceability—and it is changing the way the world does business.

Many people are aware of blockchain as the technology that enables the existence of cryptocurrency, a form of digital asset which is secured by encryption, rendering it immune to counterfeiting. But blockchain can be applied to numerous applications including supply chain logistics, seafood, financial, healthcare, insurance, trucking, and oil and gas. So far in Alaska, the seafood industry is delving into the use of blockchain technology in a variety of ways.

o you know how susceptible your business is to fraud? Unfortunately, fraud is alive and well. More than one organization has gone out of business due to fraud. However, there are ways to deter fraud, and ways to detect fraud.

The Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE) does a survey about every two years. The information provides insight into how and why fraud is committed, as well as ways to prevent and detect fraud. I recommend reviewing the 2020 Report to the Nations (copyright 2020 by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, Inc.) https://www.acfe.com/fraud-resources.asp

laska Native Corporations (ANCs) count on diversification among their holdings to provide meaningful dividends and services to their unique shareholders while also growing the corporation to serve future generations.

“Afognak, like other ANCSA village Corporations, is responsible for meeting economic, social, and cultural obligations to its shareholder owners—whose families live in or originate from the village of Port Lions or our ancestral village of Afognak,” says Alisha Drabek, vice president of Afognak Native Corporation.

hough Alaska seafood industry harvest numbers were not significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a year-over-year decline in harvest value, according to a McDowell Group report.

The decline in value connected to the pandemic is primarily tied to operating and transportation costs and significant devastation to food service markets.

“In March, when the pandemic started to erupt in the US, the fishing industry realized immediately we were going to need to put safety precautions in place in order to have successful and safe seasons,” United Fishermen of Alaska (UFA) Executive Director Frances Leach says.

he Pebble Mine project has never been closer to becoming reality. A favorable Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) published in July was a key step in the project’s progression from concept to active mine.

But permitting a large, controversial project is seldom a linear process.

A few weeks after publication of the EIS, several new challenges for the project emerged that could further delay the mine or even completely sink the project’s viability.

quaculture is an industry Alaskans are probably familiar with, even if they’re unfamiliar with the term itself.

Broadly, aquaculture refers to the cultivation of numerous species of fish and aquatic plants, such as shellfish, algae, and finfish, as well as enhancement and restoration projects designed to increase wild populations of specific species, says Heather McCarty, vice-chair of the Alaska Mariculture Task Force. Cultivation can be at aquatic farms or, if aimed at restoration and enhancement, hatcheries.

n a state rife with natural resources, it makes sense to try to find ways to use these resources to produce energy. And while Alaska always has been and likely will be heavily reliant on fossil fuels, biomass as an alternative resource is beginning to attract interest.

“Biomass generally refers to plant and animal matter or municipal waste used for energy, though most of the biomass projects in Alaska are thermal wood heat projects,” says Alaska Energy Authority (AEA) Executive Director Curtis Thayer, adding that most of the agency’s biomass work is based around these types of projects.

According to AEA records, community biomass projects date back to 1995, when they applied for funding opportunities through the US Department of Energy. The Alaska Legislature created the Renewable Energy Fund in 2008, which supports biomass projects statewide.

laska is a big place, and its natural resource development projects match that scale: world-class deposits, budgets in the billions, hundreds and thousands of jobs in the making, and associated lawsuits and legal issues introduced by parties nationwide.

In September, fifteen states sued the US Department of the Interior, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt (in his official capacity), and the Bureau of Land Management over the decision to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), a decision Bernhardt announced in August. According to the suit, the defendants “unlawfully authorized the Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Leasing Program, opening the unspoiled Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to expansive oil and gas exploration and development based on inadequate environmental review and an unlawful Record of Decision.”

f there was one takeaway from the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation’s (AEDC) latest installment of its Outlook Report, it would be a theme of uncertainty.

As Alaskans, uncertainty is something we should be pretty comfortable with by now; our economy has witnessed, and firmly situated itself around, the rise and fall of oil prices since the first major commercial development on the Swanson River in 1957.

While any sort of economic prediction contains its share of variability and a certain degree of doubt, AEDC’s verdict on the role that the oil and gas industry will play in overcoming our recession is especially unclear—and understandably so. The recent plummet in the price of oil, currently hovering around $40 per barrel, means that the portion of state revenue captured by the tax it collects on the industry—accounting in previous years for as much as 90 percent of the state’s Unrestricted General Fund—will be insufficient alone to continue funding state services. And with additional uncertainty regarding the potential implications of Ballot Measure 1 lingering around the corner, Alaska finds itself in a tricky situation.

n Alaska, metal fabrication takes many forms, from making the smallest components like screws, nuts, and bolts to creating ready-to-assemble, 350-person camps. In the construction industry, the need for companies that can build machines and structures from raw metal materials is constant, whether the job requires building a single-family home or crafting control panels to guide the oil that runs through pipelines.

The fabrication process, which can include cutting, burning, welding, machining, forming, and assembly to create the final product, requires that most companies have their own metal shops to centralize these tasks. And while some fabricators provide ready-made materials for more generalized construction needs, others specialize in extremely specific, custom-made work.

NANA Construction, for example, is distinctive in that it works in residential, commercial, and industrial construction.

n the realm of commercial insurance, brokers render invaluable support for their clients by ensuring proper coverage and protection for their employees and physical assets. Brokers are the conduit between the insurance carrier and the client, says Todd Wheeler, a principal and vice president at Parker, Smith & Feek. “We’re viewed as trusted advisors by our clients and in the same light as they view their CPA, banker, or counsel,” he says. “The premiums that we are able to save them are real dollars that are injected back into the Alaskan economy.”

In essence, insurance is a mechanism that helps companies manage risk, which is a critical function of their success and survival, says Chris Pobieglo, president of Business Insurance Associates. Insurance allows a company to take an unknown risk and transfer it into a known cost such as an insurance policy. Pobieglo explains: “Insurance takes an unknown and puts a known value on it. This helps companies with preparing budgets and not being caught by surprise by a catastrophic event that can put them out of business.”

Condor Airlines announced the return of its summer service from Frankfurt to Fairbanks in 2021.

The weekly seasonal service will begin June 17 and will run through September 9, offering a total of thirteen flights with a Frankfurt-Anchorage-Fairbanks-Frankfurt configuration. 2021 marks the airline’s 20th anniversary of summer service between Frankfurt and Fairbanks.
condor.com

onlin Gold appointed Dan Graham as its new General Manager in June; he previously served as its permit manager for years. He says, “There’s nothing I would rather do than be involved in mining. As a kid I had the best sandbox equipment collection in the entire neighborhood. I spent hours digging holes and building dams. And look where I am now: same kid, just a bigger sandbox.”