The Journal of Commerce
“Glacial”
is the word most often used to describe the North Pacific Fishery Management
Council process, but that’s actually unfair to glaciers.
Not
even time-lapse photography would reveal much movement on reducing halibut
bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska until the council’s vote June 8 in Kodiak to cut
it by 15 percent starting in 2014.
The
only previous cut in trawl halibut bycatch was a 27.4 metric ton reduction for
the rockfish program passed in 2010 that represented about 1.4 percent of the
2,000 metric ton, or 4.4 million pound, trawl halibut bycatch allotment in
place since 1986.
Rather
than compromise on the amount of the reduction, as many expected, the council
compromised with the trawl fleet on time by phasing in the maximum cut under
consideration over three years.
We
applaud the council action as an important first step, and encourage the
members to continue pushing toward more meaningful measures to reduce bycatch
even further.
The
trawl fleet made [a] series of self-defeating arguments against cutting halibut
bycatch, taking the position the move was more allocation than conservation,
pointing fingers at discards in the commercial halibut fishery, suggesting
trawlers are balancing the ecosystem by removing arrowtooth flounder and
juvenile halibut, and even attacking the International Pacific Halibut
Commission.
A
majority of the council — namely, the Alaska delegation — didn’t buy any of
that.
---For more, follow the link to The Alaska Journal of Commerce.
KYFW
2 comments:
In case you haven't seen this:
http://www.alaskajournal.com/Alaska-Journal-of-Commerce/July-Issue-3-2012/Editorial-Coastal-Villages-uses-coercion-to-score-points-for-pollock/
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2018571418_trawler01m.html
Bycatch reduction article for the Pacific coast. They can do it in Wa, Ore, and B.C. but not AK???
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