The Bering Sea pollock fishery is identified as a contributing factor to the recent steep decline in Yukon/Kuskokwim king salmon escapements.

A draft environmental impact statement on Bering Sea chinook salmon bycatch management published by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) in December raises the possibility of limitations on the Bering Sea pollock fishery if prescribed chinook bycatch levels are exceeded.

Under the preferred plan, bycatch caps would be assigned to designated sectors. Once the cap is reached in a sector, fishing there must cease.

The Alaska pollock fishery is the nation’s largest by volume. In 2007, the Alaska groundfish fisheries harvested 2 million pounds of groundfish worth more than $2 billion. Pollock accounted for more than half that value.

NMFS and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) have been trying to bring chum and chinook salmon bycatch by groundfish trawl fisheries under control since the mid-1990s.

A chum salmon savings area, where trawling closures are mandated both by season and by bycatch limit, was established in 1994.

Similarly, chinook salmon “savings areas” were established, but since August 2006 the pollock fleet has been exempt because data did not conclusively prove the closures worked.

Currently, pollock co-operatives and community development quota groups have entered into agreement on a rolling hot spot closure system to close small areas with high salmon bycatch rates. Vessels in trawl cod and flatfish fisheries are exempt from the closures because they have a very low level of salmon bycatch.

King salmon runs to Bristol Bay, Yukon, Kuskokwim and Norton Sound systems have generally been in decline since the late 1990s. In 2007, there was a sharp decline in returns, and in 2008 some areas experienced returns rivaling the poorest on record.

The chinook bycatch has been going up since the early 1990s. The average bycatch from 1992 to 2001 was 32,482, but that figure rose to 74,067 from 2003 to 2007. The bycatch hit a record high of 122,000 chinook in 2007. However, in 2008, when chinook escapements were especially poor, the bycatch was only 19,477.

The pollock industry has been working to develop a salmon excluder device, which allows salmon to escape through the top of the net during the tow. This device has shown some promise and is being used by an increasing number of boats.

The Yukon drainage has been especially hard hit by poor salmon returns. Closed fishing seasons deprived commercial fishermen of cash to pay bills and subsistence fishermen of food to meet their families’ needs for the winter. With the added burden of high fuel prices, many villages are facing dire conditions.

Another poor chinook run is predicted for 2009.

“Villages are getting double whammied,” Myron Naneng, president of the Association of Village Council Presidents, said.

“If you and I were fishing on the Yukon and were observed throwing fish away, we’d be charged with wanton waste. But the Bering Sea pollock trawl fishery throws away thousands of fish with no penalties,” Naneng said.

The Southwest Alaska Municipal Conference passed a resolution at their January meeting in Anchorage calling for “a full cost benefit analysis of the impacts to all areas of western Alaska, including all fisheries-dependent communities and CDQ groups, before the North Pacific Fishery Management Council takes final action on the proposed chinook bycatch amendment.”

“The plan sets an extremely low cap that could close the fishery for the full season. This would greatly impact the economies of both Unalaska and Akutan,” Unalaska Mayor Shirley Marquardt said.

“Our primary frustration is that the report is light on economic consequences. Budgets are planned ahead, and a sudden loss of tax revenue will create problems for local governments,” Marquardt said.

About half of Kodiak’s trawl fleet of 30 to 40 boats fish Bering Sea pollock, according to Julie Bonney of the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank.

“If the Bering Sea fishery becomes more restrictive, it could force more boats to fish Kodiak waters. Villages have been sold on the theory that the pollock fleet is to blame for poor salmon runs; that if bycatch is reduced to zero, their salmon runs will recover. But the result will only be pain to the pollock fleet,” Bonney said.

Marquardt hopes for a regionwide solution.

“We don’t want to pit communities against each other or see regulations that benefit one part of the state at the expense of another part. We want to see decisions made based on science,” she said.

The NPFMC will take up the Bering Sea pollock fishery chinook bycatch and the issues raised in the NMFS impact statement at their March meeting in Anchorage.