UNIT 19 

 ALASKA GROUNDFISH FISHERIES 



problems oi incidental take may be biological be- 

 cause ot the overharvest by groundfish fisheries, 

 they are mostly allocative in nature. Bycatch lim- 

 its on such incidentally caught species have been 

 set to mitigate the problem and have generally con- 

 strained further expansion of the groundfish fish- 

 eries. When any bycatch limit is reached, the 

 groundfish fisheries could get closed, often before 

 all of the available groundfish quota is taken. 



The North Pacific Fishery Management Coun- 

 cil has also been testing an incentive program to 

 control bycatch. 1 his is an individual vessel in- 

 centive program where bycatch rates are established 

 for the fleet and regulated by individual vessels. It 

 is designed to give a vessel more control over its 

 own fishing destiny by holding it directly account- 

 able for its bycatch rates. The program has resulted 

 in some success and is undergoing evaluation and 

 change. 



Marine mammal interactions with fish and 

 fisheries are a growing concern to resource man- 

 agement. Fisheries compete for fish that marine 

 mammal and other species, including seabirds, 

 depend on for food in the marine ecosystem. The 

 impact of fish removals on Steller sea lions has been 

 postulated as an important factor ft)r declining sea 

 lion populations. The Steller sea lion is listed as 

 threatened (eastern Pacific population) and endan- 

 gered (western U.S. Pacific population) under the 

 Endangered Species Act and continues to decline. 

 Since sea lions feed on pollock and other fish spe- 

 cies, groundfish fisheries are being regulated to 

 reduce impact on them. In December l')')8, the 

 National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS, 1998) 

 issued a biological opinion under the Section 7 

 Consultation of the Endangered Species Act that 

 the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and the Gulf 

 ot Alaska pollock fisheries are likely to jeopardize 

 the continued existence of the western population 



of Stellar sea lions and adversely modify its criti- 

 cal habitat. As a result of this jeopardy determina- 

 tion, the NMFS h.is proposed some reasonable and 

 prudent alternatives to disperse the intensity of 

 pollock fisheries in the critical habitat of sea lions 

 and enact additional 1 0-20 nautical mile no-trawl 

 zones around sea lion rookeries and haul-out ar- 

 eas. 



As the domestic groundfish fisheries are now 

 fully developed and overcapitalized, allocation dis- 

 putes between user groups have also been a con- 

 tinuing problem. These problems include inshore 

 versus offshore, fixed gear versus trawler, and other 

 user conflict issues. The North Pacific Fishery 

 Management Council has been addressing the 

 problems as they arise and developing fisher)' man- 

 agement plan amendments to mitigate them. Re- 

 cent amendments have made explicit allocations 

 to inshore and offshore sectors of the industry as 

 well as specific percentage allocation of target and 

 bycatch amounts to specific gear types. The NMFS 

 promulgated regulations to implement an indi- 

 vidual fishing quota program for sableflsh and Pa- 

 cific halibut in 1995. Under this program, vessel 

 owners are allocated transferrable quota shares of 

 sableflsh and Pacific halibut to use at their discre- 

 tion. More efficient use of the resources are ex- 

 pected under this system. 



LITERATURE CITED 



NMFS. 1996. Our living oceans. Report on the status 

 ot U.S. living marine resources, 1995. U.S. Depart- 

 ment oFCommcrce, NOAA Technical Memorandum 

 NMFS-F/SPO-l'), KiO p. 



NMFS. 1948. [biological opinion on groundtlsh tish- 

 eries in the Bering Sea-Aleutian Islands and Gult ot 

 Alaska — Endangered Species Act Section 7 consulta- 

 tion. National Marine Fisheries Service, Alaska Re- 

 gion, December ,^, 1098, 160 p. 



P.irma, Ana M. 1998. Changes in halibut recruitment, 

 growth, and maturiry and the harvesting strategy. In 

 intcrnation.il Pacific Halibut Commission 74 An- 

 nual Meeting Report, p. 4.VS6. 



Sullivan, Patrick J., and Ana M. Parma. 1998. Popula- 

 tion assessments, 1997. International Pacific Halibut 

 C'ommisslon Report ot Assessment and Research Ac- 

 tivities, 1997, p. 81-107. 



Pacific halibut sportfishing. 

 Shelter Island, near Juneau, 

 Alaska. 



207 



