Commercial fishermen who net Pacific cod caught from within the Bering Sea and Aleutians region will be operating with new limits on their own in the coming year, that are designed to reduce the pressure on harvests that regulators found to be too fast as well as dangerous. likely to accidentally capture untargeted fish species.
This newly introduced method will require fishermen who catch cod using trawls – nets that catches fish at the bottom of ocean to join the designated cooperatives, which will be assigned shares of quota. The fisheries division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced that it has informed of those who are eligible and is looking for applicants.
The cod-trawling program, which is scheduled to begin next January, will be the first fresh fishing quota system to be introduced on federal waters in Alaska According to NOAA Fisheries.
The Pacific cod harvest is the second-biggest commercial groundfish catch in the waters off Alaska, after pollock, according to NOAA Fisheries. The commercial harvest for 2021 totaled 330.4 million pounds and amounted to $86.5 million, as per NOAA Fisheries
Pacific cod is caught using three types of gear that include longline, which captures fish using hooks arranged on lines; pots and jig gear that traps fish and nets to trawl. Within the Gulf of Alaska, pot and jig gear are the mainstays of the Pacific fish harvest whereas longline gear is the most popular choice of the Bering Sea, and trawling is the most common method used to capture Pacific cod from the Aleutians as per NOAA Fisheries.
A contingent mechanism has been put in place for a number of years for harvests by longline of Pacific cod. The total amount of cod that can be caught is already divided between the different types of harvesters in the North Pacific Fishery Management Council process.
The system that will be in effect from January for cod caught trawl-caught within the Bering Sea and Aleutians is brand new, a number of other fish harvests within federal waters around Alaska have been previously transformed from open-access systems into the quota system through an process that is sometimes referred to by the term ” rationalization.”
Through rationalization, maximum catch limit are set for specific harvesters via shares of quotas, replacing the system that allow participants to fish as many as they want to until the limit of the season is exceeded by the entire fleet.
The results of the quota system are called in the North Pacific Fishery Management Council as Limited Access Privilege Programs.
The concept of converting Bering Sea Aleutian harvests from trawls of Pacific cod into this kind of system was first proposed as early as as the council was facing the decline of Pacific cod populations within the Gulf of Alaska. The council recommended in 2021 the establishment of the new system. The final rules for the new system was released in August. 8.
Managers determined that a variety of factors prompted the decision, stated NOAA Fisheries spokesperson Julie Fair.
“This Program will provide incentives to lengthen the duration of the fishing season directed and also allow deliveries to be spread across a longer period of time that would benefit processors and harvesters alike,” Fair said by email.
One of the reasons for the change is a decrease in the amount of allowable Pacific cod catch, and an increasing amount of certified harvesters as well as vessels, in addition to “the shortening of the fishing industry recently, reduced quality of the products resulting from an increase in fish race in recent times, the need to reduce bycatch and safety concerns” she added.
Bycatch refers to the accidental capture of species that are not targeted.
New quota systems will be only applicable to trawl captures of Pacific cod during the first quarter of the year, which is the seasons are referred to as B and A seasons. The A season is from January. 20 through April 1, while the B season is from April 1 through June 10. There is also a C season that runs from November. 1 but it’s not part of this new schedule.
This new method is made possible by industry groups for trawling.
Its date for submitting applications to apply in the new quote system was October. 10th, NOAA Fisheries said.
This article first appeared in Alaska Beacon and is republished here with permission.
