April 16, 2023 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted a plan that would set parameters on managing bycatch of chum salmon in the Alaska pollock industry, a move that sidestepped the placement of a hard cap on chum salmon bycatch.
The move comes as Alaska tribal leaders from the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers regions filed a lawsuit on 10 April, asking the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service review groundfish catch limits in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands. The tribes claim salmon bycatch from pollock fishing in the region has caused declines in the chum salmon population that have harmed the tribes’ ability to continue their subsistence fishery.