January 12, 2023 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
The pollock fishery in the Gulf of Alaska is unique in many ways. The pollock fishery in Alaska’s Bering Sea is rationalized, which means each vessel/permit holder is allocated a certain amount of catch for the season. But the Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery is open access, with every vessel racing against the others for catch.
The pollock fleet also fishes in the waters where Chinook salmon feed before returning to inland rivers to spawn. Traditionally, vessels must discard 100 percent of the Chinook and other prohibited species incidentally caught—known as bycatch. The goal is to minimize impacts to these commercially and culturally valuable species. The pollock fishery has a very low rate of bycatch (less than 1 percent). Additionally, there is a cap on Chinook bycatch. When it’s met, the fishery for pollock is closed.
Kiley Thompson knows the fishery well. He has been fishing in Alaska waters for nearly 30 years. After getting a job in college fishing for salmon, it eventually became his full-time profession. Today, he fishes along with three crew members in the Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery on the F/V Decision, a 58-foot seiner/trawler based in Sand Point, Alaska.
Traditionally, fisheries observers were randomly assigned to 20 to 30 percent of the trawler fishing trips to collect data on catch. This ensured reliable estimates of salmon bycatch. However, the fishing ports are rural—for instance, Sand Point is about 600 miles southwest of Anchorage, and only accessible by air or boat. It can be difficult to guarantee observer availability, with weather conditions routinely delaying flights by hours or several days. “The biggest challenge for us is getting observers, and you can end up losing fishing time” waiting for them to arrive, Thompson says.