December 6, 2019 — The US North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) is recommending that the preliminary total acceptable catch (TAC) for pollock in federal waters off the state of Alaska be set at 1.425 million metric tons in the Eastern Bering Sea.
That compares to a 2019 TAC of 1.397m metric tons and represents a 2% year-on-year increase.
The 2020 TAC recommendation falls within the 2m-metric-ton cap for all groundfish species within the eastern Bering Sea.
Additionally, the council recommended cutting the Pacific cod TAC in the Bering Sea by 4% to 141,799t. For Pacific cod in the Aleutian Islands, the recommended TAC is 13,796t, up from 12,214t in 2019.
Alaska’s Pacific cod biomass is down considerably in 2020 and will drop further in 2021, according to the draft stock assessment and fisheries evaluation (SAFE) report on stocks in the eastern Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands that was released last month.
Jim Ianelli, a veteran pollock scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration previously told Undercurrent News that a higher – or even level — TAC in 2020 would likely prove harder to fish.