Bering Sea, Aleutian fisheries slow to avoid bycat

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Web posted Friday, February 20, 2009

Bering Sea, Aleutian fisheries slow to avoid bycatch worries

By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce



Factory trawlers and other large vessels on the hunt for pollock and Pacific cod in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands have slowed their harvests in the wake of initial high incidental catch of prohibited king salmon and halibut, a NOAA Fisheries manager said.

Participants in the federal groundfish fishery, which got underway Jan. 20, started getting concerned right off the bat by the number of chinook salmon being harvested along with the pollock, said Josh Keaton, inseason manager for NOAA Fisheries.

"They don't want a repeat of 2007, when they caught 129,534 chinooks," he said Feb. 13.
The limit is 26,825.

Keaton said the fleet had voluntarily closed certain areas to fishing to avoid further incidental king salmon harvest. Other vessels fishing for Pacific cod found they were catching a lot of halibut incidentally, so several of the processing plants stopped fishing cod, Keaton said.

Major seafood processors involved in these fisheries include Westward, Alyeska, Unisea, Trident and Icicle. None of the processors were immediately available and did not return phone calls, but Keaton said they were all participating in programs to avoid catching king salmon and halibut.

"They are using the same gear (as last year) but there are a lot more salmon out there," he said. "The only thing these guys can do is try and avoid the salmon."

In the Pacific cod fishery, similarly, some vessels have stood down from fishing because of the high halibut catch, he said.

Federal law requires harvesters to retain all catch until the amount is recorded, then discard it. A prohibited species donation program allows them to donate these fish to food banks, but because the salmon and halibut are prohibited species in the groundfish fisheries, they are not allowed to enter into commerce.

The incidental harvest of king salmon in particular has been a hot issue before the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which has had hours of discussions on various ways to reduce that catch. The king salmon have a great value for both Bristol Bay and Yukon River commercial fishermen.

Commercial fishermen from villages lining the mouth of the Lower Yukon River were denied a king salmon harvest last year because of concern by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game that a sufficient number of chinooks be allowed to escape to Canada to meet requirements of an international salmon treaty.

Through Feb. 7, the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands trawl fleet had netted 10,799 kings, or 39 percent of the maximum limit of 27,472 fish. In one week alone, the trawlers brought in 1,474 kings, according to NOAA reports.

In the Pacific cod fishery, non-trawl gear through early February had harvested 210 halibut, or 31 percent of an 833 halibut limit, while the trawl vessels netted 375 or 11 percent of a limit of 3,350 halibut, according to NOAA reports.

Exceeding the total allowable catch of halibut as a prohibited species in the groundfish fishery results in closure of the fishery, Keaton said.

Given that the prices being paid for Pacific cod are currently lower than they were at this time a year ago, harvesters are waiting for the halibut to move out of the area, he said.

Harvesters are tracking daily how much salmon is coming in from each area of the Bering Sea, Keaton said.

"If the boat comes in with a lot of salmon from that area, they close that area," he said. "It's all voluntary. They all participate in it. They could close it for a week or a couple of days, then send in a boat to check and see if the salmon are still there."

Similar caution is being employed in the Pacific cod fishery, he said.

"There is high halibut bycatch in the areas they are catching Pacific cod currently," he said. "Low could be one halibut for every 1 metric ton of groundfish. This year to date, it is closer to 60 kilograms of halibut for every metric ton of cod. In 2008, they were catching 15 kilograms of halibut for every metric ton of cod."

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, at its December meeting in Anchorage, cut the Alaska pollock total allowable catch in the Eastern Bering Sea to 815,000 metric tons, down from 1 million metric tons in 2008, as a conservation measure to sustain the fishery.

The council meanwhile raised the allowable catch of pacific cod from 170,720 metric tons in 2008 to 176,540 metric tons in 2009. The council each year recommends allowable harvest of 2 million metric tons for all Alaska groundfish.

In 2007, the last year for which complete statistics were available, the BSAI groundfish harvest in federal waters was nearly 1.7 million metric tons and the Gulf of Alaska had a harvest exceeding 151,000 metric tons.

In state waters, there was an additional harvest of 40.2 million pounds. The groundfish fishery in 2007 generated 1,182 jobs, compared to 3,759 jobs in salmon fisheries and 1,246 jobs in the halibut fleet, according to state labor statistics.

Margaret Bauman can be reached at mailto:margiebauman.@alaskajournal.com

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