Experts believe that 19 percent cut is the lowest since feds began managing fishery in 1977. It is informed that the Bering Sea next year could yield its smallest catch of pollock in more than 30 years, squeezing the supply of a raw material used in goods such as fish sticks and imitation crab legs.
Government scientists who track the population of the mottled bottom fish are recommending a commercial catch limit of 815,000 tons. It is told that if the proposal approved, it would be a nearly 19 percent cut from this year’s level and the lowest catch limit since federal management of the fishery began in 1977. David Benton of the Juneau-based Marine Conservation Alliance, told that the sky is not falling when it comes to pollock in the Bering Sea.
Benton added that this was an expected downturn, and we’ve seen similar patterns in the past. Others, however, see plenty of worry in the steep decline of the pollock fishery, which as recently as 2006 produced close to double the catch it might next year. Jon Warrenchuk, an ocean scientist with the conservation group Oceana, opined that fishery regulators are counting too heavily on a fast rebound in the pollock stock.
Jim Ianelli, a fishery scientist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Seattle, agrees that the pollock decline based on annual population surveys in the Bering Sea plus complex mathematical modeling. Ianelli believes that as soon as next year, the stock is likely to begin growing again as pollock born in 2006 begin to reach adult size. John Bundy, president of Seattle-based Glacier Fish Co., which runs three ships that catch and process pollock at sea, said it would hurt to see the catch limit cut to 815,000 tons next season.
