Photo: Alaska Region, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service/Flickr
Bycatch—when one species of fish is caught by boats fishing for another species—is often cited as a contributing factor to salmon declines, especially in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. The trawling fleets that fish for pollock in the Bering Sea are allowed a certain number of fish per year as acceptable bycatch; for example, if too many king salmon show up in bycatch, the pollock fishery can immediately be shut down.
This week, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which oversees commercial fishing in the Bering Sea, will consider limiting trawlers’ bycatch of chum salmon in the Bering Sea pollock pelagic trawl fishery.
According to a press release from SalmonState, from 2014 to 2023, more than 300,000 chum salmon were caught and mostly discarded each year, on average. At that same time, some Western Alaska communities have seen limits placed on their chum salmon fisheries.
“It’s unacceptable that large-scale Seattle-based trawlers have no limits to their chum salmon bycatch while Alaska Native, small boat commercial and sport fishermen are bearing the burdens with restrictions, prohibitions, and empty smokehouses, freezers, and closed businesses,” said Jackie Arnaciar Boyer, SalmonState’s Ocean Justice Program Coordinator. “We’ll be looking for the Council to take meaningful action. Establishing a meaningful cap on chum salmon trawl bycatch when there is currently none and Alaskans are going without is far from unreasonable.”
Click here to learn more about bycatch and other issues facing Alaskan salmon
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