Stop Wasteful Trawl Bycatch
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The Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska ecosystems are reeling.
For the first time in history, the Bering Sea snow crab fishery has been shut down for
the 2022/23 season. And for the second straight season, the 2022/23 Bristol Bay
red king crab fishery is closed as well. Yukon River Chinook salmon are forecasted to return in low numbers in 2023, and the chum salmon return is uncertain - leading state managers to close subsistence fishing in the Lower Yukon.
Meanwhile, trawlers pursuing pollock for fish sticks and fake crab continue to indiscriminately catch massive amounts of a multitude of fish species including salmon, crab and halibut. This harvest of non-targeted species, called bycatch, cannot be sold to market, is oftentimes considered “ waste,” and is dumped overboard.
While nearly every other sector of the Bering Sea based fishery suffers, the largest, most wasteful one continues full steam ahead. This must change. Urge NOAA fisheries to update guidelines for National Standards 4, 8, and 9 to better address environmental changes and inequity in federal fisheries management.
More info
Federally managed fisheries such as the Alaska pollock trawl fleet, are regulated under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, which requires fisheries management to conform to ten National Standards. NOAA Fisheries issues guidelines for how fisheries decisions should be made to follow the National Standards.
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Reads: Conservation and management measures shall not discriminate between residents of different states. If it becomes necessary to allocate or assign fishing privileges among various United States fishermen, such allocation shall be (a) fair and equitable to all such fishermen; (b) reasonably calculated to promote conservation; and (c) carried out in such manner that no particular individual, corporation, or other entity acquires an excessive share of such privilege.
Why the guidelines need to change: The trawl fishery bycatch of salmon, halibut, and crab have likely contributed to the reduction and closure of direct commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries. However, the current guidelines for National Standard 4 do not direct the Council to consider these impacts in allocation and equity distribution in the pollock trawl fishery. As such, NMFS could update the guidelines for National Standard 4 to consider impacts to fisheries and equity of fishermen outside of the managed fishery by setting allocations and bycatch caps under National Standard 9.
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Reads: Conservation and management measures shall, consistent with the conservation requirements of this Act (including the prevention of overfishing and rebuilding of overfished stocks), take into account the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities by utilizing economic and social data that meet the requirement of paragraph (2) [i.e., National Standard 2], in order to (a) provide for the sustained participation of such communities, and (b) to the extent practicable, minimize adverse economic impacts on such communities.
Why the guidelines need to change: National Standard 8 requires fishery management to take into account the importance of fishery resources to fishing communities. The high number of bycaught salmon, halibut, and crab taken by the pollock trawl fishery has negatively impacted the socioeconomics of the direct target commercial, recreational, and subsistence fishers of those species, as well as the communities that rely on them. The impact of both low abundance and high bycatch in the trawl fishery is not thoroughly represented by the Council and NMFS decisions.
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Reads: Conservation and management measures shall, to the extent practicable, (a) minimize bycatch and (b) to the extent bycatch cannot be avoided, minimize the mortality of such bycatch.
Why the guidelines need to change: Guidelines could be updated by NMFS to further the goal to minimize bycatch, reduce the impacts of bycatch on valuable species, and protect direct target fisheries such as Alaska’s commercial, recreational, and subsistence fisheries for Chinook and chum salmon, halibut, and crab.
