The National Marine Fisheries Service [NMFS] announced Wednesday, Sept. 25 that it was shutting down the rest of the Central Gulf of Alaska pollock season. That’s after reports that the trawler fleet incidentally caught “unprecedented amounts of Chinook salmon” this week — which comes as the issue of salmon bycatch faces mounting scrutiny.
Jonathan Kurland, the Fisheries Service's acting regional administrator for the Alaska region, said the closure was necessary to “prevent exceeding the 2024 Chinook salmon prohibited species catch limit.”
The Kodiak-based trade group Alaska Groundfish Data Bank said in a press release on Sept. 24 that two fishing vessels trawling for pollock on Sept. 22 came upon a hotspot of Chinook salmon, which the organization described as an “extremely unprecedented amount.” The vessels were in an area adjacent to Kodiak Island.
The Data Bank said one vessel’s crew found a large amount of Chinook in their net and then warned the second trawler’s crew, who then pulled up their gear.
The group’s executive director, Julie Bonney, said the two trawlers’ total bycatch was around 2,000 fish.
“The fleet voluntarily stood down. Because we knew we had the unprecedented lightning strikes [bycatch], they did the responsible thing and waited for the data to enter the system to understand how it was going to affect the Chinook cap,” Bonney said.
The Chinook salmon caught by the two boats on Sunday were all counted by observers onboard. Once those numbers were confirmed, the data was extrapolated out to the rest of the fleet and exceeded the fishery's annual bycatch limit.
The total cap for Chinook salmon bycatch from the pollock trawl fleet in the Central Gulf of Alaska is about 18,000 fish.
Bonney said this is the first time that she has seen the pollock fishery shut down due to reaching its Chinook bycatch limit in at least 12 years.
“While we don’t like having the fishery shut down, the system functioned as it was supposed to," she said. "Which means that we are under a bycatch management regime and once we hit that amount we were shut down."
Josh Keaton, a management specialist with the National Marine Fisheries Service, agreed that despite the biggest bycatch incident he’s seen in his time with the agency, the trawler fleet did the right thing.
“Upon realizing that they had a concern with salmon bycatch, the fleet had a meeting to discuss voluntarily standing down. They did so in order to provide opportunities for the observers to collect the necessary information, and understand the rates and how that would impact their fishery,” Keaton explained.
He also confirmed this type of closure hasn’t happened in the Central Gulf of Alaska since the early 2000's.
As a result of the abrupt closure and the entire Gulf of Alaska trawl fleet of roughly 50 boats voluntarily ending their fishing prior to NMFS’ announcement, Keaton said roughly 110 million pounds [or 50,000 metric tons] of unharvested pollock will be left on the table for the season.
This bycatch incident renewed calls from the Groundfish Data Bank to have more research conducted on Chinook stocks and provide the latest science to the trawl fleet to avoid future incidents, something that has been requested by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game as well.
But the closure comes at a time when declining king salmon runs and broader concerns around salmon bycatch have drawn increased scrutiny from many, including environmental and Alaska Native groups. Some have even called for the much larger Bering Sea pollock fishery to be shut down to address crashing chum runs that are vital for subsistence in Western Alaska.
And earlier this year, the Washington-based Wild Fish Conservancy filed a request to list Chinook salmon as an endangered species.
Meanwhile, Alaska’s Fish and Game commissioner has said he’s concerned about historically low numbers across the state, including the Karluk River run.
The roughly 2,000 fish caught by the Kodiak area trawlers were genetically sampled to learn more about where this particular stock of Chinook came from.
Keaton said next year’s trawl electronic monitoring program will include full monitoring of every boat to potentially prevent this situation from happening in the future.
“In 2025 under the trawl EM program, every pollock delivery will get an enumeration of all salmon. So therefore there would be no extrapolation like there was on unmonitored hauls, and every vessel would get their actual amount of salmon [counted]," Keaton stated.
The annual deployment plan detailing the electronic monitoring program changes for 2025 will be discussed during the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in October.
Pollock is the largest fishery in Kodiak in terms of volume. Although unlike in the Bering Sea, factory trawlers are banned from fishing for pollock in the Gulf of Alaska. The region’s pollock fleet is mostly made up of smaller, independent, and often family run vessels. With the B season abruptly closed for the remainder of the year, Bonney said the impact will be felt by the entire local fishing community and by those outside of the industry like shipping companies, truck drivers, and even Highmark Marine.
She suspects some of the trawl vessels will start fishing for rockfish or flatfish to try to make up some of their lost revenue but those fish are unlikely to cover the difference with the current market conditions in Kodiak.
The City of Kodiak's Mayor Pat Branson was one of several Alaska mayors who signed onto an open letter published in the Anchorage Daily News on Sept. 2, detailing how crucial the pollock fishery is for the community and economy of Kodiak. The letter described the fishery as supporting hundreds of jobs in the community.
“These jobs aren’t just numbers on a spreadsheet—they’re the livelihoods of our friends, neighbors, and families,” the letter read.“The revenue generated by the pollock fishery funds our schools, maintains our infrastructure, and provides critical public services. Without it, the very fabric of our community would unravel.”
Alexis Telfer, a spokesperson for Trident Seafood, told KMXT via email, "The closure of the Central Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery is devastating to the Kodiak fleet and community. Trident Seafoods is assessing options to support our fleet and employees through this difficult time."
The Pollock B season in the Gulf of Alaska opened on Sept. 1 and was expected to stay open until Nov 1. This closure does not affect the Western Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery or other regions.
