Saving Seafood

Factory trawlers praised for halibut conservation

December 26, 2015 — What a difference a year makes for the halibut bycatch controversy in the Bering Sea at the December meetings of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Anchorage. The flatfish factory trawlers, vilified for much of this year, reported vigorous and voluntary efforts at halibut conservation, and even received praise from the Pribilofs. Their zeal was prompted by what might be termed resolution number two-by-four of the fish council last summer, which slashed halibut bycatch by 25 percent.

“It was a huge hit to our sector,” said Chris Woodley, executive director of the Groundfish Forum said last week.

But voluntary efforts by the flatfish fleet have already saved 265 metric tons of halibut this year, he said, exceeding the goal of 217 metric tons.

He cited the benefits of a special federal permit allowing deck sorting that gets the halibut back into the water faster and with greater chances of survival. With the halibut removed from the net and returned to the water from the top deck of the boat, only about half the halibut die, down from the 83 percent that perish when kept inside the huge trawl net for up to two hours while below decks in the factory area, he said.

At last week’s NPFMC meeting, representatives of the factory trawlers in the Amendment 80 fleet said that they were already taking measures to limit halibut bycatch, getting out ahead of the 25 percent cut that takes effect next year.

Read the full story at The Bristol Bay Times

 

Gulf of Alaska Groundfish to Reopen After NMFS Allocates 1600 Additional Chinook Salmon as Bycatch

SEAFOODNEWS.COM [SeafoodNews] — August 10, 2015 — NMFS has given Gulf of Alaska groundfish trawlers in the non-rockfish program Sector an additional 1,600 Chinook salmon to their prohibited species catch (PSC) allowance in an emergency ruling.

The implementation of the emergency decision was done after the North Pacific Management Council (NPFMC) recommended an emergency rule in a 10-1 vote during its June meeting. On May 3, the Gulf of Alaska groundfish sector was forced to close after fishermen unexpectedly reached its annual 2,700 Chinook salmon allowance in the Western and Central Gulf of fishery.

According to NMFS the additional limit of 1,600 Chinook salmon PSC is likely to restore a substantial portion of the forgone groundfish harvest and associated revenue made unavailable by the closure. It will allow the sector to harvest its recent average amount of groundfish for the remainder of 2015, while keeping the total Chinook salmon PSC well below the annual threshold for all Gulf of Alaska trawl fisheries.

“NOAA Fisheries has determined that an emergency exists because the early closure of the Non-Rockfish Program CV Sector’s groundfish fisheries is causing significant economic detriment to harvesters, processors and the community of Kodiak,” NMFS said in a press release on Friday.

A previous PSC management action, Amendment 93 to the FM was approved in June 2011 to limit Chinook salmon PSC to 25,000 Chinook salmon in the Western and Central GOA pollock trawl fisheries.

Because the Western and Central GOA non-pollock trawl fisheries were without a Chinook salmon PSC limit prior to 2014, the Council recommended that Chinook salmon PSC limits be extended to these fisheries under Amendment 97 to the FMP.

Amendment 97 to the FMP limits Chinook salmon PSC to a total of 7,500 Chinook salmon for the Western and Central GOA non-pollock trawl fisheries – 2,700 for the Non-Rockfish Program CV Sector, 3,600 for the Catcher/processor Sector, and 1,200 for the Rockfish Program CV Sector.

New data has shown that previous estimates of PSC for this sector were not representative of recent PSC use.

The additional allocation of 1,600 Chinook salmon would be consistent with the overall goals of Chinook salmon PSC management in the GOA trawl fisheries and would not substantially increase Chinook salmon PSC use relative to established limits NMFS said.

Based on current and anticipated incidental catch of Chinook salmon in the GOA trawl fisheries, NMFS anticipates that total Chinook salmon PSC by GOA trawl vessels is unlikely to exceed 32,500 Chinook salmon, well below the annual threshold of 40,000.

This temporary rule will mitigate the costs of the closure to participants in the fishery while the Council develops an FMP amendment to permanently address this situation.

This emergency rule is effective upon publication in the Federal Register today and will last until December 31, 2015, or until the new PSC limit of 1,600 Chinook salmon is reached by the Non-Rockfish Program CV Sector.

This story originally appeared on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.