[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 213 (Wednesday, December 16, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7529-S7530]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Tribute to Linda Behnken

  Mr. SULLIVAN. Mr. President, it is getting toward the end of the week 
here. We still have got a lot of work to do in the U.S. Senate, 
particularly on a relief package and end-of-the-year appropriations. So 
we are working hard on that.
  But I also want to take the opportunity, given it is the end of the 
week, to do what I consider one of my favorite activities of the entire 
week each week in the Senate, and that is talking about someone in my 
State who is making a difference, helping out our communities and 
making Alaska one of the best States--the best State, in my view--in 
the country. This is the individual we call the Alaskan of the Week.
  So I want to do an acknowledgment to some of our Hill reporters who 
have taken an interest in the ``Alaskan of the Week'' each week. I 
think sometimes because they recognize it is finishing up the week. We 
are not yet done yet, though. We have a lot of work to do. But I also 
appreciate them reporting on it because it is just good to see stories 
about people who are doing good work for their State and their 
community.
  What we try to do with this series, which we have been doing now for 
a number of years, is to talk about people who don't always get the 
recognition that they deserve, people who are making a big difference. 
You know, Alaska, like really every other State in the country, is 
experiencing serious challenges right now as a result of COVID-19, but 
I am confident, just like the rest of the country, we will get through 
this more resilient than ever.
  We have a saying. I certainly love this saying: Tough times don't 
last, but tough people do. Americans, Alaskans, North Dakotans are 
tough, and we are going to get through this.
  I would like to introduce our Alaskan of the Week, Linda Behnken, 
from the gorgeous city of Sitka, AK, in Southeast Alaska. The ``Paris 
of the Pacific,'' it is called, Sitka. A fun fact about Sitka, it is 
the largest city in the United States by land area, encompassing over 
4,800 square miles, including water. That is big. The population is 
fairly big for our State. It is beautiful. If you haven't been to 
Sitka, you have got to go. It is gorgeous.
  Now, Linda--boy, talk about Linda. Linda is innovative, caring, and 
she has a deep and abiding commitment to our great State, her 
community, and to the profession that she has devoted her life to, one 
that is revered and so important in Alaska, and that is commercial 
fishing.
  For more than 30 years now, Linda has been on a boat catching fish 
out of Alaska's waters. It is the best seafood, mind you, in the world. 
No doubt about that one--wild Alaskan seafood. Not only is she a 
successful fisherman, which is, of course, a full-time job, she has 
also worked to ensure that Alaska continues to have sustainable 
fisheries.

[[Page S7530]]

  We are what I call the superpower of seafood. Over 60 percent of all 
fish caught in the United States is harvested in Alaska's waters--6-0. 
That is huge. But we need to make sure we have oceans that are clean 
and sustainable and that the profession is safe and small fishermen can 
thrive and the young fishermen can enter the profession. That is what 
Linda has been focused on for her entire career in Alaska.
  So for this work and so much more, including a huge role in helping 
needy families, particularly during this pandemic, Linda was recently 
awarded the prestigious Heinz Award for the Environment, named after 
the late U.S. Senator John Heinz. It is a very prestigious award.
  Here is the thing. Linda didn't even apply for it. She didn't seek 
it. She was sought out and I believe shocked when she found out she 
received this very prestigious award that comes with a $250,000 cash 
prize. Now, that is a big deal. I will say more about that cash prize 
in a minute.
  Let me tell you a bit about Linda's story and how she came to be such 
a passionate steward of our fisheries, of our sea, and of our ocean. 
Born and raised in Connecticut, Linda headed to Alaska in 1982 during a 
summer break from college. She wanted to make some money. She heard 
that one of the ways she could do it was to fish in the great State of 
Alaska.

  She took a ferry from Bellingham, WA, to Sitka, and she immediately 
fell in love with this gorgeous--and I mean gorgeous--community the 
minute she got off the boat. It took her about a month pounding the 
docks to find a deckhand job. There weren't a lot of women in this 
business then. She did eventually find not just a job but a wonderful 
community.
  ``The fishing community,'' she said, ``is full of independent and 
resourceful people who are really there for each other'' in their times 
of need. She also described how, when the fishing was done or when it 
was bad weather, people would gather around the docks. Some would light 
up the grill. Some would bring pie, a loaf of bread. Instruments would 
come out. Stories were told. Kids played. Linda said: ``I found a sense 
of community that I really hadn't [found]'' anywhere else.
  So she loved it. She went back to the lower 48 to finish her 
undergraduate degree, but Alaska was always with her. She knew that she 
had found a home and a mission to help create more sustainable 
fisheries in the great State of Alaska.
  To that end, she enrolled in a master's degree program in resource 
development at Yale and then came back to Alaska.
  ``What I saw going on in the ocean drove me to . . . graduate 
school.'' During that time, in the 1980s, she said that the way the 
fishing was managed wasn't working well for the smaller fishermen, nor 
was there much of an emphasis back then on sustainability.
  When she came back to Alaska, she began to fish again, eventually 
buying her own small commercial fishing boat, which she now fishes with 
her husband and two sons who have themselves been fishing since a very, 
very young age.
  I have always said that the Alaskan fisherman is the quintessential 
small business man and small business woman. It is often family 
businesses. They take huge risks. They create a great product. They 
work hard as can be. They are the quintessential small business men and 
women in America, and Linda proves the point.
  She became the executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's 
Association, which is an alliance of small-boat commercial fishermen 
committed to sustainable and safe fisheries.
  Let me talk about safety on our waters in Alaska. Fishing, 
particularly in Alaska's waters, is one of the most dangerous jobs out 
there. Linda has had many harrowing stories--caught out fishing in the 
frigid waters for hours in the center of storms, man overboard, 
challenges, wind whisking away equipment. But all in all, it is much 
safer now than it used to be when Linda first started to fish. Then, 
when a certain fishery opened, everyone rushed out at once to get as 
much fish as possible regardless of the conditions. That has changed. 
Now fishing is a safer--but still dangerous--business in my great 
State.
  Linda was also involved in limiting bigger commercial vessels from 
operating in the waters of Southeast Alaska and worked for more 
stringent environmental regulations on the cruise ship industry.
  Among other things related to fisheries, she served 9 years on the 
North Pacific Fishery Management Council and is a founding member of 
the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, which promotes Alaska seafood, 
helps younger men and women enter the field, and helps feed the hungry 
from the bounty of the sea--all of which contributed to her winning the 
Heinz Award.
  This pandemic that we are experiencing has negatively impacted so 
many lives, but it has also brought out some of the best in us in 
Alaska and in America, people across the country, reaching out to their 
neighbors, volunteering their time to do as much as they can.
  This includes Linda. When she read early on in the pandemic that a 
grocery store in her area stopped accepting checks, she got to work. 
Working with her groups, the Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust and the 
Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association, they began delivering food--
fish--to people's doors, locally caught and processed seafood to those 
who were in need.
  So far--get this--with their partners, they have provided over 
400,000 pounds of delicious Alaska seafood. They brought in 400,000 
pounds--wow--to children's programs, food pantries, women's shelters, 
Tribal organizations, and military organizations. You get the picture. 
She is working hard. They have done amazing work. And I want to thank 
her and so many who worked with her for this great effort.
  Something else that Linda did, a decision she made for her community. 
Earlier, I spoke about that cash prize that came with the Heinz Award--
$250,000. She took $100,000 of that money, which was her prize money, 
and donated it back to the organization that she helped found, the 
Alaska Sustainable Fisheries Trust, to work on sustainable fisheries, 
combating climate change, and to help young fishermen enter the 
profession so we have sustainable fisheries going forward.
  I am sure Linda probably heard the good news: Our legislation, my 
legislation, the Save Our Seas 2.0 legislation to clean up our oceans 
passed the Senate recently and is on its way to the President's desk 
for his signature. More good news.
  As she said: ``We won't have jobs if we don't take care of our 
fisheries.'' Keep them sustainable ``and get young people into the 
profession.'' People like Linda--committed, organized, generous of 
spirit, hard-working, in love with what she does in her State and her 
community--will get us through this pandemic. These are the people in 
Alaska, in America. And it is people like her that will also ensure 
that Alaska remains the superpower of seafood, not just for America but 
for the world.
  So, Linda, for all that you do, for all that you are going to 
continue to do, thank you, thank you, thank you. Great work, and 
congratulations on being our Alaskan of the Week.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oklahoma.