Saving Seafood

ALASKA: ‘A’ season pollock quota back on par after decrease last season

May 17, 2023 — Bering Sea pollock fishermen have almost met their “A” season quota.

Since the fishery opened in late January, nearly 100 vessels have caught about 1.2 billion pounds of Alaska pollock. That leaves about 43 million pounds still available to catch.

“It’s definitely a lot of fish,” said Krista Milani, a fisheries resources management specialist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Unalaska. “Sometimes when you think about the amount of pollock that they’re able to sustain in the Bering Sea, it’s kind of mind-blowing how much pollock is actually there.”

Milani said this “A” season quota is back on par with recent years, after a decrease last season.

Read the full article at KYUK

ALASKA: Gearing up for season’s start, Alaska’s pollock fishery faces salmon bycatch questions

February 22, 2023 — A vigorous debate over bycatch and calls for marine habitat protections is underway in advance of the beginning of Alaska’s lucrative pollock fishery in March.

The pollock fishery hit a wholesale value of USD 1.329 billion (EUR 1.358 billion) in 2022; However, that coincided with a devastating collapse in the state’s crab stocks and deteriorating returns in chinook and chum salmon fisheries. All of those fisheries are interconnected.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

ALASKA: Debate rages on impact of pollock trawler bycatch on declining stocks in Alaska

January 3, 2022 — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council declined to take immediate action to limit pollock trawling that some have blamed on causing declines in populations of chum and chinook salmon, red king crab, opilio crab, and other species that come up in the tows of pollock-fishing vessels.

At the NPFMC meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, during the second week in December, representatives from Indigenous tribes and the crab- and salmon-fishing sectors pushed the council to take immediate action to close down trawling in vast areas of the Bering Sea, but the council deferred any potential action until 2023.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource