Kodiak’s trawl fleet is heading out to the fishing grounds to catch pollock in a fishery that opened Jan. 20.
Julie Bonney is the Executive Director of the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, which represents trawlers and processors.
She says the trawlers are looking at lower quota level this year.
“The pollock quotas this year are about 20 percent less than last year. We’ve got about 30 vessels that will be fishing out of Kodiak.
“And everybody’s really interested to see what the catch rates will be and the grade of fish, just because it’s been so cold and snowy. The past four of five years the fishery’s really taken off on the 20, and done well. But this year it might be delayed somewhat just because of the colder regime that we are working under right now.”
Pollock are a whitefish that’s used in a number of consumer fish products such as fish and chips and McDonald’s fish sandwiches.
Pollock is also used to make surimi, which is a fish paste product that can be flavored to make imitation crab legs.