January 4, 2023 — The Groundfish Forum – a Seattle, Washington, U.S.A-based trade group representing five U.S. trawling companies – has sued NOAA Fisheries over a newly adopted plan to reduce halibut bycatch in Bering Sea and Aleutian Island groundfish fisheries.
In November 2023, NOAA Fisheries finalized a rule potentially lowering the annual halibut catch limit for the Amendment 80 sector – a fleet of 20 groundfish-trawling vessels operating in the Bering Sea. The new rule, which went into effect 1 January 2024, ties the annual catch limit to the most recent halibut abundance figures. The previous static catch level of 1,745 metric tons (MT) for halibut bycatch is kept as a ceiling, but the catch limit can be lowered by up to 35 percent if the abundance level is considered low.