Federal fisheries managers approved a 45,000 Western Alaska chum salmon limit with a corridor closure for the Bering Sea pollock fishery.
The 8-3 vote on Feb. 11 came after three days of public testimony at an Anchorage meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council. In establishing that cap, the council noted that, annually, 80 percent or more of the overall chum caught as bycatch consists of Russian and Asian hatchery chum, as documented through annual genetic sampling by NOAA Fisheries.
If a pollock fishing sector hits that cap, it would close a significant area of the Bering Sea that reflects a corridor for Western Alaska salmon passage and the majority of the pollock catcher vessels' fishing grounds.
The cap is intended to prompt a direct change by lowering bycatch, which is critical for subsistence fishermen in communities along Alaska's Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers.
The cap would include 31,950 chum from catcher vessels delivering to shoreside plants, 4,410 chum from Community Development Quota groups, 4,365 chum from catcher vessels delivering to motherships, and 4,275 chum from catcher processors.
Now that the council has acted, in the wake of testimony from over 200 people representing the commercial pollock fishery, subsistence harvesters, and environmental and business entities, NOAA must still respond to comments and prepare a final environmental statement.
Assuming all goes smoothly, the new chum cap would likely not be in effect until 2028.
"Prior to each B season, National Marine Fisheries Service will provide an estimate, using a three-year rolling average, of each sector's ratio of Western Alaska chum prohibited species catch to total chum prohibited species catch (PSC) for the incentive plan agreements to calculate their Western Alaska chum PSC and manage in-season," said Council Member Rachel Baker, deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, who prepared the motion.
Council Member John Moller, an Alaska native and owner of a consulting firm in Juneau, voted for the motion. Moller said he feels fortunate to be able to put up fish in Southeast Alaska each year and has compassion for those who cannot do so.
Council Member Nicole Kimball, who is employed by the Pacific Seafood Processors Association and voted for the motion, said she was sure that nobody was very happy with the compromise motion, but she is optimistic. "I think it's needed," Kimball said. "I think it's going to change behavior. I think it's going to reduce Western Alaska chum bycatch."
Jon Kurland, Alaska regional administrator for NOAA Fisheries, also voted for the motion, but said it was heartbreaking to hear people testify about the impact of salmon loss on their food security and cultural heritage. "The family businesses that operate catcher boats, the seafood processing capacity in many remote areas that really needs a steady flow of pollock to make it possible to process other species for smaller-scale fisheries," he said.
Lauren Hynes, a marine scientist with the environmental organization Oceana, said that over the past decade, the Bering Sea pollock fishery has intercepted nearly three million chum salmon, including over 489,000 Western Alaska chum, while subsistence harvests in the Interior and Western Alaska declined as much as 97 percent. Oceana supported alternatives supporting a hard cap of 100,000 chum salmon and another establishing a 50,000-fish prohibited species catch limit in the bycatch corridor that would trigger targeted closures in high-risk areas.
Council Member Jamie Goen, executive director of Alaska Bering Sea Crabbers, and one of three council members who voted against the motion, said she was really pleased to see the communication at the meeting between the tribes and the pollock industry.
"The place that this motion falls short in my mind is the corridor cap," Goen said. "A Western Alaska chum cap at 45,000 is too high. That is close to the low end of the analysis for a 50,000 overall chum salmon cap. Using a middle-of-the-road approach, I think the cap should be based on when the shore-based and MS fleets would have hit that cap about half of the time to create a strong incentive. Catcher processors can more easily fish outside clusters 1 and 2, if needed. So I think the focus should be on catcher vessels and motherships."
