metric tons per year, about twice as much finfish as taken 

 by the commercial catch. The inference was made in the plan 

 that potential finfish yield is as much a function of mammal 

 abundance as of fishing intensity. 



Status of stocks : Except for Pacific ocean perch, 

 Pacific halibut, and sablefish, all other groundfish species 

 in the region are believed to be at or above abundance levels 

 producing MSY. 



In 1976 total catch of groundfish by foreign fisheries 

 was about 1.4 million metric 'tons in the Bering Sea and 

 Aleutian Islands, mostly pollock. The domestic fishery in 

 this region has been very small and is anticipated to remain 

 small in the near future. The present domestic commercial 

 bottom fishery is a small long line fishery for halibut by the 

 U.S. and Canada. The combined U.S. and Canadian catch was 

 around 300 metric tons in 1976 and 400 metric tons in 1977. 

 Native subsistence fishing uses nondemersal fish such as her- 

 ring and salmon. 



Marine mammal interactions : This section contained the 

 only explicit discussion of the MMPA in the plan. Impacts 

 of marine mammals on the fishery were mentioned, but impacts 

 of fishing on marine mammals, such as harassment or incidental 

 take of mammals, were not included. 



Restrictions on killing or harassing seals and sea lions 

 result in an unknown but, according to the FMP , probably sig- 

 nificant economic loss to setline fishermen, when those ani- 

 mals mutilate or remove part of the catch. 



Mammals often congregate around trollers and attack hali- 

 but, salmon and crabs which are returned to the sea as a con- 

 servation measure. The plan concluded that the presence of 

 large populations of marine mammals has a profound impact on 

 the abundance of commercial fish species. The impact is di- 

 rect through predation on commercial species and indirect 

 through grazing on the same food resources used by commercial 

 fish. 



Optimum Yield ; OY for all groups was set equal to ABC, 

 as indicated in Table F-l. No social or economic reasons for 

 reducing the yield below ABC were judged necessary, because 

 of the small domestic involvement in this fishery. OYs for 

 pollock, turbot, other flatfish, cod, squid and other species 

 were set at essentially the same levels as MSY and EY . For 

 yellowfin sole, OY was set at EY so no stock rebuilding would 

 be expected, even though the stock is depleted. 



F-4 



