Josh Keaton, inseason manager for NOAA Fisheries informed that factory trawlers and other large vessels on the hunt for pollock and Pacific cod in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands have slowed their harvests in the wake of initial high incidental catch of prohibited king salmon and halibut. He added that the fishermen don’t want a repeat of 2007, when they caught 129,534 chinooks.
According to Keaton the fleet had voluntarily closed certain areas to fishing to avoid further incidental king salmon harvest. Other vessels fishing for Pacific cod found they were catching a lot of halibut incidentally, so several of the processing plants stopped fishing cod. In the Pacific cod fishery, similarly, some vessels have stood down from fishing because of the high halibut catch.
It is noted that federal law requires harvesters to retain all catch until the amount is recorded, then discard it. A prohibited species donation program allows them to donate these fish to food banks, but because the salmon and halibut are prohibited species in the
groundfish fisheries, they are not allowed to enter into commerce. Keaton told that exceeding the total allowable catch of halibut as a prohibited species in the groundfish fishery results in closure of the fishery.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, at its December meeting in Anchorage, cut the Alaska pollock total allowable catch in the Eastern Bering Sea to 815,000 metric tons, down from 1 million metric tons in 2008, as a conservation measure to sustain the fishery.
