Feb 4, 201205:15 PMBlog: Fish Bytes
Alternatives advanced to cap bottom trawl chinook bycatch
SEATTLE — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council has adopted a motion to consider a range of hard caps for chinook salmon bycatch by the bottom trawl fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska.
Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Cora Campbell introduced the motion, which originally called for cap options of 5,000, 7,500 or 10,000 chinook allowed to be taken by the bottom trawl fisheries.
John Henderschedt of Seattle introduced a motion to add an option for a cap of 12,500 chinook.
The recent average from 2003 to 2010 is about 6,000 chinook taken annually by the bottom trawlers in the western and central Gulf.
Henderschedt’s motion to add an option for 12,500 passed by a 7-4 vote.
Campbell voted for Henderschedt’s motion for the larger cap option of 12,500 along with Ed Dersham of Anchorage, Bill Tweit of Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, Dave Benson of Seattle, Roy Hyder of Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and Glenn Merrill of National Marine Fisheries Service.
Merrill was sitting in for NMFS Alaska Region Administrator Jim Balsiger.
The motion was opposed by Duncan Fields of Kodiak, Sam Cotten of Eagle River, Dan Hull of Anchorage and Chairman Eric Olson.
Last June in Nome, Henderschedt successfully introduced a motion to raise the preliminary preferred cap of 22,500 chinook salmon for the pollock fleet to 25,000. A pro-rated cap based on that amount takes affect this year in the summer and fall seasons.
On the overall motion introduced by Campbell, Benson and Hyder voted against advancing caps for consideration. Hyder expressed his preference that the council begin moving forward with a catch share program for the Gulf of Alaska instead.
Tweit also said the council was putting too many burdens on the Gulf trawl fleet by passing bycatch control measures on tanner crab in October 2010 (rules that have yet to be written by NMFS), the pollock fleet cap in June 2011 and advancing measures to reduce halibut bycatch from 5 percent to 15 percent.
Here’s the text of the motion as introduced, with Henderschedt’s amendment in bold:
Problem statement:
Magnuson-Stevens Act National Standards require balancing achieving optimum yield with minimizing bycatch, while minimizing adverse impacts on fishing dependent communities. Chinook salmon prohibited species catch (PSC) taken incidentally in the GOA trawl fisheries is a concern, and incidental take is limited in the Biological Opinion for ESA-listed Chinook salmon stocks. The Council recently adopted a PSC limit of 25,000 Chinook salmon for the Western and Central GOA pollock trawl fisheries, while also indicating an intent to evaluate Chinook salmon bycatch in the non-pollock trawl fisheries, which currently do not have a Chinook salmon bycatch control measure.
The following alternatives apply to non-pollock trawl fisheries in the Central and Western GOA.
Alternative 1: Status quo
Alternative 2: 5,000, 7,500 or 10,000 or 12,500 Chinook salmon PSC limit (hard cap)
Option 1: Apportion limit between Central and Western GOA
Option 2: Apportion limit by operational type (CV vs. CP)
Applies to both options: Apportion proportional to historical average bycatch of Chinook salmon (5- or 10-year average)
Alternative 3: Full retention of salmon
Vessels will retain all salmon bycatch until the number of salmon has been determined by the vessel or plant observer and the observer’s collection of any scientific data or biological samples from the salmon has been completed.
Andrew Jensen can be reached at andrew.jensen@alaskajournal.com.
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