SalmonState: Disappointment with Council’s decision to punt, again, and allow trawlers to continue to drag bottom in protected areas supposedly closed to bottom trawling for at least three more years

SalmonState Ocean Justice Campaign Coordinator Jackie Arnaciar Boyer testifying at the NPFMC October meeting

Upon the conclusion of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s October meeting, SalmonState Executive Director Tim Bristol issued the following statement:

“Once again, the Council has failed to take a common-sense step to close a trawl-sized loophole in the fishery it manages,” said Bristol. “Several years ago, a study made clear that so-called pelagic, or ‘mid-water’ trawlers actually drag the bottom with their heavy nets between 40 and 100% of the time, depending on vessel type — something the trawl industry itself then admitted it had known for far longer. Instead of acting on this knowledge and clearly defining pelagic or midwater trawlers as trawlers that in no way touch the ocean bottom, the Council side-stepped the elephant in the room and voted to continue to allow pelagic trawlers to crush crab, coral, halibut and other species in sensitive areas closed to bottom trawling and crabbers for reasons of conservation. It’s pretty simple: a trawler that drags the bottom should be defined and regulated as a trawler that drags the bottom, and no bottom trawling should be allowed in sensitive areas closed to bottom trawling. The Council’s refusal to act on this obvious need is shocking but not surprising, given the Council is primarily composed of people who represent the trawl fleet and has a track record of finding ways not to take meaningful action that could affect trawlers’ profits.”

SalmonState Ocean Justice Campaign Coordinator Jackie Arnaciar Boyer and fisherman Alexus Kwachka authored an opinion piece in the Anchorage Daily News on the subject on October 2.