Tag Archives: Bering Sea halibut bycatch
Halibut bycatch cap reduction should reflect what we know about the resource
As a fishery scientist who has worked for more than 20 years with trawl fishermen to reduce salmon, crab and halibut bycatch, I find the recent rhetoric around proposed North Pacific Fisheries Management Council changes to the cap very frustrating. In particular, I hear media campaigns underwritten by environmental NGOs claiming, “It’s been 20 years since the halibut bycatch cap was last reduced,” implying that this has created a conservation issue. Read the rest here 14:28
GUEST COMMENTARY: Bering Sea halibut bycatch cuts critical for conservation
I’ll also be considering what’s coming up after I return to homeport — the June convening of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Sitka. There the Council will take final action on the proposed reduction of halibut bycatch caps in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands, or BSAI, region.This decision point comes after a decade of steady stock decline, during which time the directed halibut fishery quota in the BSAI has dropped by 63 percent. Halibut fishermen in the hardest hit region — the Central Bering Sea — are facing closure Read the rest here 13:12
From the Fleet – Setting the Record Straight on Bering Sea Halibut Bycatch, Ludger Dochtermann, Kodiak
We, as Alaska Longline Fishers, are joined by Washington State halibut fishermen who also fish Alaskan waters. In 2012, statewide, 2,009 residents and 565 non-Alaskans held halibut quotas for Alaska waters; and 1,168 crew, as well. Thousands more are deckhands. Many longliners fish the Area 4 districts, waters of the Bering Sea, where the trawl bycatch problem is at its worst. In 2012, 308 Alaskans held 14.8 million pounds, and 186 non-Alaskans held 18.2 million; on average, the non-Alaskan holdings averaged twice what Alaskans held per person. Co-written by Stephen Taufen, Groundswell Fisheries Movement Read he rest here 11:46
North Pacific Fishery Management Council members seek halibut bycatch cut
After a motion failed at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council by a single vote with an Alaska delegate absent, another effort is underway to reduce halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea in the face of rapidly sinking catch limits for the directed fisheries. Interim Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten and the other five Alaska members of the North Pacific council signed a letter to National Marine Fisheries Service Assistant Administrator Eileen Sobeck on Dec. 18 asking for an emergency reduction in . Read the rest here 12:44
