National Fisherman, March 1991 — 30 Years Ago: Alaska’s Gov. Walter Hickel took office for the second time after a 20-year hiatus, bringing Clem Tillion of Halibut Cove onboard as a special adviser on fisheries. But the move hasn’t eased the concerns of some fishermen after Hickel put the Bering Sea fleet on notice.
“The crab fishermen — and I watched this from the 1950s to the mid-60s — destroyed it because of the overfishing; and they tried to blame it on disease. The disease was greed,” Hickel said. “And the trawlers come up here, and they do the same thing in the Bering Sea.”
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Hickel created a new job in his administration for Tillion, a Kachemak Bay fisherman who got into politics and served as a one of the first members and the third chairman of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.
“The governor told me that our fisheries policy shall be consumer-driven and market-oriented. He told me he believes consumers have a right to a steady supply of seafood if the biology of the resource allows it,” Tillion said. “I have always believed that fishermen, like all food producers, should deliver a quality product at a reasonable price, so I told the governor I was his man.”