Bycatch Accounting Disconnects
By Chris Woodley, Fishermen’s News Online [Opinion], February 2015 —
When the 2014 fishing season in the Bering Sea / Aleutian Islands wrapped up in late December, flatfish trawl fishermen within the Alaska Seafood Cooperative (AKSC) had successfully reduced their overall annual halibut bycatch by 93 metric tons (mt) over 2013 and had reduced their cumulative 3rd and 4th quarter halibut bycatch amounts by 106 mt as compared to the 5-year average for those same quarters. The action taken by AKSC was in response to a motion made in June 2014 by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) that requested individual Bering Sea fishing sectors voluntary cut their halibut bycatch usage by 10 percent over their 5-year average for the 3rd and 4th quarter of 2014. The goal of the reduction was to ensure that the Bering Sea directed halibut fishery in Area 4CDE would have sufficient fish for the 2015 season. The AKSC reduction of 106 mt below the 5-year average exceeded the Council’s request and should have gone a long way to maintaining the 2015 directed halibut fishery harvest.
