January 4, 2016

Aleutian P-cod harvest level down 42 percent

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KUCB

Last week Alaska Fish and Game set the Pacific cod guideline harvest level (GHL) for the fishing season that began on Jan. 1.

Dutch Harbor Fish and Game biologist Justin Leon says the 2016 numbers are a big change from last year.

"We've just released this coming year's GHL for the harvest that's going to be allowed for the Aleutian Islands Subdistrict, and that is going to be 10,476,259 pounds. It's down 42 percent from last year," Leon said.

Why such a huge drop?

"That's because the [Alaska] Board [of Fisheries] changed some things in order to align us better with the federal side of things, specifically last year we took three percent of what was allowed in the federal Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands area," Leon explained. "This year, what we've done is taken 27 percent from just the Aleutian Islands part of that area. And that's how we've come up with that."

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