SEAFOOD.COM NEWS by John Sackton — December 16, 2013 — At their meeting in Anchorage which is concluding this week, the North Pacific Fishery management council adopted the final harvest specifications for both he Bering Sea and the Gulf of Alaska.
The Bering Sea fishery is unique in that the council as established for many years a 2 million ton cap on total harvests, which is far below the allowable biological cap if all fisheries were fished at the sustainable level. This year, total allowable biological catch would have been 2.572 million tons, but it will be limited to 2 million tons.
One result is that Alaska is far more successful than other US fishery regions in catching their target harvest levels. For example, in 2013, 94% of the total TAC’s were actually landed. In New England, by contrast, the figure was 19.5% for the current fishing year at a time when most landings have occurred for the fishing year ending in May.
This year, the council added 20,000 tons to the Alaska pollock quota, and made it up by reducing some of the flatfish quotas. Total Alaska Pollock TAC will be 1.267 million tons, plus 19,000 tons in the Aleutians.
For Pacific cod, the combined Bering Sea and Aleutian TAC in 2013 was 260,000 tons; for 2014 the Bering Sea TAC will be almost 247,000, while the Aleutian TAC will be 7,000, for a total of 254,000, a tiny reduction.
For the flatfish complex, including yellowfin sole, arrow tooth flounder, Kamchatka flounder, Northern Rock sole, Flathead sole, Alaska Plaice and other flatfish, the 2013 TAC of 371,579 tons was reduced to 352,600 tons in 2014.
However the freezer longline fleet and the Amendment 80 fleet got some increases in important stocks. For example, Greenland turbot – which is a hot fishery at this time – saw an increase to 2124 tons, which will reduce the pressure of bycatch limiting that fishery. Also there were increases in the TAC for for flathead sole, and Alaska Plaice while yellowfin decreased by 14,00 tons. However, the catch on yellowfin was 35,000 tons less than the 2013 TAC of 198,000 tons.
For the Gulf of Alaska, pollock TACs were raised from 121,000 tons to 174,000 tons, and pacific cod was raised from 60,600 tons to 64,738 tons. The Gulf does not operate under a cap like the Bering Sea, so total harvests can fluctuate more freely based on stock abundance. Sablefish remained similar to 2013, while flatfish mostly decreased slightly.
This story originally appeared on Seafood.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.