Feb 2, 201204:44 PMBlog: Fish Bytes
Council still treading water on halibut bycatch
SEATTLE — The North Pacific Fishery Management Council just passed the following motion regarding halibut bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska.
The Council approves the release of the EA/RIR/IRFA for public review, incorporating recommendations from the SSC that pertain to the analysis as possible, with the following additions:
1. New IPHC bluebook information and CEY from the 2012 IPHC annual meeting, including expanded discussion on a) the methods and assumptions used in the lost yield and migration models that are briefly described within the analysis; and b) the methods used by IPHC staff to apportion bycatch among the U26, O26-U32 and O32 size categories.
2. Add a new suboption under Option 2, Suboption 3 that would allow the Amendment 80 sector to roll unused halibut from one season to the subsequent season, similar to the non-Amendment 80 sectors.
3. Remove Suboption 3.1, which would apply the full trawl PSC reduction to the fifth season only
4. Add a new suboption under Option 2, Suboption 3 to allow available trawl halibut PSC in the second season deep and shallow water complexes to be aggregated and made available for use in either complex from May 15 through June 30. Halibut PSC sideboards for the Amendment 80 and AFA sectors would continue to be defined as deep and shallow water complexes in the second season.
What all that apportionment and allocative language means is that bycatch reduction won't be happening any time soon in the Gulf. Even final action in June is far from certain, as results from the April 24-25 joint workshop between the council and the IPHC regarding halibut were referenced often as a reason to wait until June before taking action.
Just as a reference, the chinook salmon bycatch regulations implementing the cap of 25,000 for the Gulf of Alaska were published Nov. 23. The pro-rated cap takes effect in the summer and fall seasons this year. Grand total of 3 pages. NMFS told the council Wednesday that even a final action at its April meeting wouldn't allow for implementation of halibut bycatch reductions any earlier than 2014.
Andrew Jensen can be reached at andrew.jensen@alaskajournal.com.
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