The Alaska Board of Fisheries has tweaked some regulations related to trawl bycatch in the Prince William Sound pollock fishery. It was part of just one agenda item at the group’s meeting in Cordova from Dec. 12-16. But some wanted the board to go further and completely close the only state managed pollock trawl fishery in Alaska.
Alaska’s Board of Fisheries considered four proposals that would have severely restricted or even shut down the pollock trawl fishery in Prince William Sound. Ultimately, though, only one was passed that didn’t go nearly that far. The amended version of Proposal 15, which was changed by Board member Tom Carpenter, was approved six to one. Proposals 14 and 16 had no action taken based on #15 passing, and proposal 17 failed with only one member in favor.
The measure stipulates that all salmon bycatch must be brought back to port and surrendered to the Alaska Department of Fish & Game, also referred to as mandatory retention. This would add on to the mandatory retention that is already required for rockfish and potentially address some of the salmon bycatch concerns in the trawl fishery.
The approved proposal also removes a requirement in the Prince William Sound Pollock Trawl Fishery Management Plan that currently closes a specific area of the fishery once harvest levels hit 60% of the total.
Board member Tom Carpenter, who proposed the substitute language for proposal 15, said it bothered him that, “the vessels that transited from Kodiak into Prince William Sound, specifically the Hinchinbrook District, to harvest pollock were forced to move either to the Bainbridge or Knight Island sections when 60% of the GHL was met.”
“I think that it makes sense to tray and have the flexibility to keep the fleet where they’re not encountering a lot of bycatch," Board Chair Marit Carlson-Van Dort said. "So I appreciate what this language is doing.”
Meanwhile, the overall bycatch limits will stay the same. Currently, regulation caps the total weight of all bycatch species combined at 5% of the total weight of pollock harvested. So if 1 million pounds of pollock is harvested then bycatch of all other species cannot weigh more than 50,000 pounds.
Alaska’s Board of Fisheries helps oversee state-managed fisheries. And the Prince William Sound pollock trawl fishery is the only pollock trawl fishery within state waters. Roughly 15 Kodiak vessels participate and annually bring in about $1 million in dockside value during the season in the beginning months of the year. Prince William Sound’s pollock harvest is separate from, and dwarfed by, the federally managed Gulf of Alaska pollock fishery. And it’s just a sliver of the massive overall Bering Sea pollock fishery, which is also managed by the feds.
Still, debate surrounding the trawl proposals brought before the board centered around bycatch in the pollock trawl fishery, which is the incidental catch of species that aren’t targeted, like Chinook salmon or rockfish.
The Chenega IRA Council, which represents the Alaska Native Village southwest of Cordova in Prince William Sound, submitted three proposals they say will help reduce bycatch and protect the salmon that are central to their subsistence lifestyle. But many groups, like the Alaska Department of Fish & Game and the City of Kodiak, opposed these measures.
Some pointed to evidence that bycatch of shortraker rockfish, which live in deeper water, is occurring in the trawl fishery and shows that trawlers are making contact with the bottom of the seafloor.
Loretta Brown, a legal and policy analyst with the conservation group SalmonState, told board members there’s no question trawl gear is touching the bottom. However, since there isn’t comprehensive observer coverage or electronic monitoring onboard all vessels, then really no one knows how often trawlers are hitting the bottom.
“And so I would like to suggest this board potentially put in either an amendment or look into potentially requiring bottom sensors," Brown told the Board of Fisheries last week.
But some fishermen in attendance, like Patty O’Donnell of Kodiak, say trawlers already avoid hitting the bottom at all costs. He estimated it would cost him hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars to repair his trawl gear because it would be wrecked after hitting the bottom of the ocean floor.
He cited one study, titled “2022 Evaluation of Fishing Effects on Essential Fish Habitat,” that collected data on trawl gear’s interactions with the seafloor, which states a range of 0 to 40% of the gear may contact the bottom.
“But as you heard yesterday, based on testimony, because of the ocean floor in the [Prince William] Sound, which is rocky and hard, and if you looked at the video, it’s steep in places;" O'Donnell said. "We do not go on the bottom.”
O’Donnell, who is the board president of the Alaska Whitefish Trawlers Association, said the trawl industry is trying to implement its own method to monitor trawlers’ seafloor interactions and determine a more specific range of contact
The Alaska Board of Fisheries chose not to institute a requirement for sensors on trawl gear. It also rejected a proposal that would have required 100% electronic monitoring and 50% physical onboard observers on all pollock trawlers in the fishery; proposal #17 failed with a vote of 1 to 6.
Right now the Alaska Department of Fish and Game has the ability to implement onboard observers if it chooses. The department also has Emergency Order authority to raise or lower bycatch percentages in the Prince William Sound pollock trawl fishery in response to conservation concerns or other factors.
Board members said they believe these small adjustments will address some of the growing general mass of bycatch concerns, despite not going forward with the more stringent restrictions.
The new regulation changes will take effect next year, after the Lieutenant Governor approves them as part of the upcoming Alaska Administrative Code changes. Opening day for the Prince William Sound Pollock trawl fishery has not been announced yet, but it’s expected to start in January.
