Halibut bycatch by the Bering Sea trawl fleet could be reduced by up to one-third following a vote by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council.
After days of deliberation and public testimony at the online council meeting, the members voted 8-3 on Monday to link the prohibited-species catch limit of Bering Sea halibut to the abundance of the fish, thereby lowering trawl fleet bycatch when there are fewer halibut.
Fishermen and stakeholders from across coastal Alaska testified in support of a steep reduction in the allowed halibut bycatch. Hundreds of people commented in writing and by videoconference. Verbal testimony lasted more than eight hours.
State Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins, of Sitka, told the council that a wide range of Alaskans support limiting trawl bycatch, which is estimated at about 2.8 million pounds per year.
“There is broad and encompassing support for meaningful action on halibut (abundance-based management) and a reduction of bycatch limits in the Bering Sea. … That conservation burden should be shared by all groups, including the (Bering Sea trawl) fleet,” Kreiss-Tomkins testified.
He said the issues are more than financial.
“There is an additional consideration that is immaterial and somewhat incalculable,” he said, “that when the people that are next to the resource, and are stewards of the resource, are alienated from the resource, that’s deeply, deeply problematic.”
The council deliberated four options on halibut bycatch presented in a draft environmental impact statement. Alternative 1 would have preserved the status quo, regardless of halibut abundance. The other three alternatives offered differing bycatch reductions. In the final vote, the council approved a custom option near the deepest cut.
When the fish are in very low abundance, the bycatch limit will be reduced by up to 35%.
Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association, said the management council’s decision “is a big step in the right direction.”
“The biggest benefits of course are to the fisheries of the Bering Sea, particularly in the Pribilofs,” Behnken said after the vote. “There are benefits of reduced bycatch to everyone who cares about, depends on, enjoys the halibut resource. This is an abundance-based management approach which has been our focus for the last six years, that the cap should fluctuate with abundance.”
Also, she said, the decision is a victory for coastal communities.
“There’s a really big social justice piece of this action, that we’re not allowing these six factory trawl companies (operating 19 vessels) to preempt the people who live in the Bering Sea and have depended on halibut for subsistence and livelihood.”
The Sitka Fish and Game Advisory Committee supported the bycatch reduction in a letter to the management council.
“We favor reducing (trawl) halibut bycatch as much as possible as soon as possible,” the Sitka organization said. “Additionally, we feel (trawl) bycatch of other species such as salmon, shellfish, and sablefish need to be reduced as much as possible as soon as possible.”
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