June 17, 2019 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The Council met in Sitka AK, from June 3-10. Our digital newsletter is published! For those interested, all the articles on one page to print is available here, and the three meeting outlook here. As always, you can access all other meeting information through the Agenda.
June 13, 2019 — The Aleutian Islands won’t be getting an emergency boost in quota for Pacific cod, despite stakeholders’ assertions that the processing plant in Adak needs it to survive the next season.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council decided not to approve an emergency petition from a group of Aleutian Islands stakeholders at its meeting June 9, instead taking a longer route through a discussion to look at the set-aside options for the area.
The petition had sought an emergency quota set-aside of Pacific cod, separate from the general Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands quota, to help sustain the shore-based plant and thus the community.
Adak, a small community on an island west of Unalaska that once housed a naval base, relies heavily on Pacific cod processing. The community there taxes fishery landings to pay for public services as well. In recent years, the shore-based processors have had to increasingly compete with larger companies’ catcher-processor vessels participating in the Bering Sea Pacific cod fishery.
The fishery has grown as well, and as the fishery is not under rationalization, fishermen have complained of an increasingly dangerous “race for fish” that makes the season shorter and shorter. In spring 2019, the Bering Sea Pacific cod “A” season lasted less than two weeks.
May 30, 2019 — Many of Alaska’s commercial fisheries depend on observers having a place on board, but fewer than a fifth of them feel appreciated by the industry, according to a new survey.
Fishery observers sail on vessels with fishermen in federal waters and keep track of catch and bycatch and take biological samples throughout trips. Managers use this information to evaluate stocks and manage fisheries.
The job can be tough, requiring up to a month at a time on the water in rough conditions, and turnover can be high. The survey, conducted by the National Marine Fishery Service in 2016, asked 553 observers why they did the job and what their experiences have been like.
Although three-quarters of them thought the job helped them in their careers and about 69 percent said the days at sea matched their expectations, nearly half them reported being harassed. Only 20 percent said they felt valued by the fishing community, and many said they were disappointed by a lack of opportunity to learn more about science and management, according to the survey findings, published in May.
The original intent of the survey was to help improve retention. Most observers quit after a few years — the West Coast, with about 5½ years, has the longest average tenure. Alaska’s average tenure is about 4.8 years, according to the survey data. Although observers have to have some training or education before taking the job, there’s a lot they learn through experience.
April 18, 2019 — Two-and-a-half years after a federal court directed the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to develop a fishery management plan for the Cook Inlet salmon fishery, there is still a lot of work to do.
The commercial salmon fisheries of Alaska are primarily managed by the state, including in Cook Inlet, where part of the fishery takes place in federal waters. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council for years deferred management of the salmon fishery there to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, finally removing Cook Inlet completely from its FMP in 2012.
The United Cook Inlet Drift Association and the Cook Inlet Fishermen’s Fund sued, saying the federal government had a responsibility to manage that fishery to ensure it complies with the Magnuson-Stevens Act. In 2016, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, and the council reluctantly turned back to developing a management plan.
Many of the commercial fishermen there have a longstanding dissatisfaction with the Alaska Fish and Game and the Board of Fisheries, stemming from a belief that the department’s allocation decisions governed by the board are politically rather than scientifically motivated and that the escapement goals for sockeye salmon on the Kenai River are too high.
They sought to exercise federal influence over state management through the lawsuit, and now are running into roadblocks on federal authority to do so.
April 16, 2019 — The following was released by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council:
Our digital newsletter is published! For those interested, all the articles on one page to print is available here, and the three meeting outlook here. As always, you can access all other meeting information through the Agenda.
March 25, 2019 — Washington, D.C. Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kelly ruled March 21 that the North Pacific Council’s Amendment 113 (A113) to the Bering Sea Groundfish Fisheries Management Plan does not comply with Magnuson-Stevens Act (MSA) requirements.
The amendment, adopted in 2016, provided 5,000 metric tons of Pacific cod as a set-aside for processing facilities located west of 170 degrees longitude. It named the specific cities of Adak and Atka in the US state of Alaska and the plants located there as the plants that would benefit from this set-aside.
Shortly after the amendment was adopted in late 2016, the Groundfish Forum, United Catcher Boats and other groups who rely on cod, flatfish, and other groundfish in the Bering Sea, filed a complaint challenging the rule, based on five separate claims for relief.
They contended first, that the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) didn’t have the authority to “allocate shore-based processing privileges” and overstepped its authority with this amendment.
March 5, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council is considering rationalizing the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands trawl pacific cod fishery after voting to take action on the fishery at its February meeting. A number of alternatives for management changes to the fishery have been released for public review; the council will be considering final actions during upcoming meetings.
The fishery is facing a number of issues, including decreasing stocks, an increase in participation and an increasingly shortened season. Among the actions that the council is considering to address these issues is the introduction of a catch-share system, in which quota would be allocated.
The council is also weighing up its options to address the increasing prevalence of catcher/processor vessels — also known as motherships — which is resulting in a loss of deliveries to shore-based processing facilities. The council is looking at various ways to limit the participation of certain vessels acting as motherships.
At its June 2018 meeting, the council adopted a purpose and need statement, which acknowledged recent increases of motherships and a decrease Pacific cod deliveries to shoreside processors.
“The council is concerned about the impacts of the recent increases and potential for future growth in offshore deliveries of Pacific cod to … vessels operating as motherships, and the potential impacts those increases could have on shoreside processors, communities and participating catcher vessels,” the statement reads.
The statement also notes that the race-for-fish management system has resulted in a “decreased ability to maximize the value of the fishery … negatively impacting fishery participants,” as well as discouraging fishing practices that can minimize bycatch.
“Additional entrants could exacerbate these issues and threaten the viability of the fishery,” the statement reads. “The council is considering options to improve the prosecution of the fishery, with the intent of promoting safety and increasing the value of the fishery.”
TAC for the fishery has been reduced in recent years. While the cod fishery in the gulf of Alaska has fared worse, with its TAC being cut by 80 percent, the TAC for the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands fishery was cut by nearly 50 percent last year.
At the council’s February meeting, Darral Brannan, a consultant for the NPFMC, noted that the 2019 Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands trawl Pacific cod A season was the fishery’s shortest ever.
“In 2018, the A season for the trawl CV sector closed on February eleventh. This year, the fishery closed February first. It was 12 full days of fishing. It covered 13 calendar days, but it was noon to noon,” he told the council. “It was the shortest ever A season that we’ve had.”
According to Brannan, in 2018, 18 percent of the Pacific cod from the fishery was delivered to motherships, rather than shoreside processors. Comparatively, in 2019, mothership deliveries rose to 30 percent.
The council is considering a number of different options to limit activity in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Pacific cod trawl fishery, which are outlined in six alternatives.
At its February meeting, the council voted on a motion to bifurcate alternatives two, three and six in order to address concerns around motherships separately from issues surrounding higher levels of participation in the fishery. (Alternative one is for the council to take no action). Alternatives two, three and six specifically address the issues with increased mothership participation in the fishery, and these have now been released for public review.
Respectively, these alternatives would involve: limiting the number of motherships that can take Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Pacific cod deliveries; limiting the total amount of Pacific cod that can be delivered to motherships; or prohibiting certain vessels from participating in the fishery as motherships.
The council received several letters urging it to take action on this issue — including one from the Pacific Seafood Processor Association, a nonprofit trade association comprised of nine processing companies, located in 18 communities throughout Alaska. Pacific Seafood Processor Association has members that operate processing facilities in Dutch Harbor, King Cove, Sand Point, Akutan and others. The letter urged the council to expediently address the issue.
“This issue continues to have meaningful impacts for BSAI coastal communities, who rely heavily on volume fisheries like pollock and cod,” the letter states. “All of these local governments levy local raw fish taxes on the value of fish landed at local processing facilities and inshore floating processors.”
The council also received public comment requesting that it take a more mediated approach to limiting motherships.
In a letter to the council Matthew Doherty, president and CEO of United States Seafoods, which operates the catcher processor Seabreeze Alaska, argued that the Seabreeze Alaska has an “extensive history in the fishery” and that United States Seafoods depends on the ability of its catcher vessels to deliver cod offshore.
Doherty argued that the United States Seafoods has been “a good citizen” in the fishery by coordinating with other stakeholders — even suspending its operations in the Aleutian Islands cod fishery in 2018 in an attempt to aid the Adak plant’s success.
“The SEAFREEZE ALASKA’s participation in the fishery is NOT part of the ‘recent increases . . . in offshore deliveries’ noted as problematic in the Council’s purpose and need statement for this action,” the letter states. “If the Council restricts offshore cod processing, we recommend the action be narrowly focused on recent problematic changes in the fishery.”
While this item was originally scheduled for final action at the council’s June meeting, according to the most recent draft of the council’s upcoming meeting schedule, the item has been moved up to the council’s next meeting, which is in April.
The issues surrounding increasing participation in the fishery are being addressed as a separate agenda item. The council also voted on a motion to develop a scoping paper, which may be used to develop a comprehensive Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands cod trawl catcher vessel management program.
The scoping paper will analyse the possibility of introducing Pacific cod endorsements for trawlers with LLP licenses, which would rationalize the fishery.
A NPFMC Advisory Panel, which is made up of various fishery stakeholders, offered the council both arguments for and against this action. Meetings from the AP’s February meeting noted that some of the panel argued that a catch share program would the best solution for protecting stock levels and giving harvesters, processors and their communities the chance to maximize the value of the fishery.
Other fisheries have been rationalized in the past, including rockfish in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands crab.
“The problems currently being faced by the BSAI trawl CV cod fishery are similar in nature to problems previously faced by other fisheries that now operate under a catch share program,” the AP minutes state. “The multiple successes achieved under these varying programs established in the North Pacific now lead the participants in the BSAI cod trawl fishery to believe that the development of a cooperative-based program for BSAI Pacific cod is the best solution.”
However, not all of the panel was onboard. The minutes state that a catch share program for Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands trawl cod may make it harder to enter the fishery.
“Catch share programs that allocate quota to LLPs can make access to the fishery more expensive for new entrants and have potentially negative impacts on communities,” the minutes state.
Some public comments reflected a concern that, should the council establish a catch share program in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands fishery, it could negatively impact other fisheries. Among them was a letter from Patrick O’Donnell, the owner and operator of the F/V Caravelle, a trawler homeported in Kodiak. O’Donnell expressed concern that an action on the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands fishery could have an impact on the Gulf of Alaska cod fishery and requested that the council postpone further action until it can ensure that Gulf of Alaska fishermen wouldn’t be affected.
“GOA trawlers have asked for a catchshare management plan, with tools to better manage bycatch in the Gulf, and I would like to see that program move forward at the same time as any changes to the (BS cod fishery),” the letter states. “Any action that moves the cod TLAS fishery closer to a rationalized program has the potential to create spill-over effects in the GOA.
“It will create advantages for boats that have a guaranteed share in the BS, and give them an incentive to race for fish in the GOA first, then go harvest their share in the Bering Sea.”
The scoping paper is scheduled for council discussion at its October meeting.
All the alternatives that the council is considering, along with staff analysis and public comments can be found on the NPFMC’s website. Those looking to provide public comment prior to the council’s April meeting can do so via the NPFMC’s online comment portal, or at the meeting itself.
This story was originally published on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
March 1, 2019 — The following was released by NOAA Fisheries:
More fish come through the Alaska fishing port of Dutch Harbor than anywhere else in the Nation. In fact, Dutch Harbor and Kodiak, Alaska, are the top two U.S. fishing ports in landed volume. These same two ports rank No. 2 and No. 3 in U.S. economic value.
We collect biological, ecological, and environmental data during long-term, standardized research surveys, from fishing catches, and through other research activities. In the laboratory and in the field we study what fish and crabs eat, where they live, and how fast they grow. We input these data into sophisticated computer models to generate estimates of fish abundance (number of fish in the population), determine the potential impacts of environmental change, and recommend sustainable fishing limits. We also collect socio-economic data on fisheries and coastal communities, and other ecosystem data. Resource managers use this information to develop sound management measures ensuring healthy fisheries over the long term with ecological, economic, and socio-cultural benefits for the nation.
Our primary responsibility is to provide scientific data, analyses, and expert technical advice to marine resource managers (i.e., the NOAA Fisheries’ Alaska Regional Office, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, the State of Alaska, the International Pacific Halibut Commission, and the Pacific Salmon Commission), Alaska tribal governments, public stakeholders, and U.S. representatives participating in international fishery and marine mammal negotiations. The work of monitoring and assessing fish, crab, and marine mammal populations, fisheries, and marine ecosystems is mandated by legislation, which includes the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the U.S Endangered Species Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act.
February 22, 2019 — As pressure continues to build on Pacific cod landings in the Bering Sea, the US’ North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) is taking a hard look at the number of trawl vessels and offshore processors there, Alaska Public Radio reports.
A year after federal regulators dramatically cut the quota in the Gulf of Alaska, trawlers say the congestion is causing a race for the fish.
“You got kind of a perfect storm going on here: You have more and more vessels entering a fishery, you’ve got less fish available to be caught, and now this year in 2019, we ended up with a 13-day season,” Brent Paine, executive director of United Catcher Boats, is quoted as saying. “Four years ago, it never even closed.”
The NPFMC has taken up a request from Paine and others to study a catch share plan for trawl catcher vessels, splitting up the sector’s landings between individual boats before the season begins. A scoping paper is due from its staff later this year.
Such a management structure, which is already used by halibut and pollock fisheries, would limit the number of vessels that can participate in the fishery and reduce competition, the article notes. A specific date range would determine historical participation and therefore who gets shares and how many.
February 20, 2019 — About a year after federal regulators dramatically cut the Pacific Cod quota in the Gulf of Alaska, some fishermen in the Bering Sea say there are too many boats fishing for the declining species.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is looking into the problem, but potential solutions are likely to be controversial.
Since Pacific cod stocks crashed in the Gulf of Alaska in recent years, members of the fishing industry say fishermen are focusing their efforts farther west.
Tom Enlow is the president of UniSea, which operates a large shore-side processor in Unalaska. He said more vessels — especially trawlers — are crowding the fishing grounds. He also said there are more offshore processors competing for their cod.
“You’re seeing people who have historically not participated in these fisheries – as a processor standpoint – now coming into the fishery,” Enlow explained. “So there’s a lot of excess capacity now and pressure on this resource.”