Fisheries analyst on pink season disaster declaration versus cod

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Kodiak is seeking a federal disaster declaration for the 2018 commercial Pacific cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council recently determined it would need to decrease the cod fishery’s total allowable catch by 80 percent as a result of cod declines.

Now, the city and borough are in the process of drafting a letter to the governor’s office to request a disaster declaration.

The city and borough wrote a similar letter following the poor pink salmon season in 2016.

While the Gulf of Alaska pink salmon fishery was one of those to be granted the status, Congress has yet not provided relief funds.

KMXT spoke with Kodiak fisheries analyst Heather McCarty and got the lowdown on the two declarations.