Specific objectives for this management plan are: 



1. Measures should take into account unpredictable 

 characteristics of future resource availability and socio- 

 economic factors including the industry; 



2. Where possible, manage individual fish stocks as a 

 unit throughout their range with due consideration of other 

 impacted resources; 



3. Where stocks are below MSY , promote rebuilding; con- 

 sideration of the rate of rebuilding takes into account fac- 

 tors other than biological considerations; 



4. Management measures should attempt to avoid disrup- 

 tion of existing social and economic structures where fish- 

 eries are in reasonable conformance with the FCMA; 



5. Allow a safety margin in recommending catches when 

 recommendations are based on questionable data; provide for 

 accessing biological and socioeconomic data where they are in- 

 adequate; identify information and research required for fur- 

 ther plan development; and 



6. Design fishing strategies so as to have minimal impact 

 on other fisheries and the environment. 



Ecological description : A pronounced biological charac- 

 teristic of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Island area is the 

 presence of large numbers of marine mammals and birds. Another 

 biological characteristic is the quantitative dominance of 

 pollock. This degree of single species dominance of fish fauna 

 is not found in any other ocean area. Pollock exhibit pro- 

 nounced cannibalism, with the large older adults feeding on 

 the younger stages, possibly causing long term fluctuations in 

 the population in the absence of a fishery. In theory a fish- 

 ery which removes these older individuals will stimulate pro- 

 duction of the younger portion of the stock by removing one 

 element of predation. This ecosystem also exhibits abundant 

 benthos supporting flatfish and crab communities , and a very 

 high basic organic productivity. 



A computer simulation model, DYNUMES III (Dynamic Numerical 

 Marine Ecosystem Model) , has been developed for fish of this 

 region (Laevastu and Favorite, 1978). The model accounts 

 for growth, recruitment or production, and mortality of indi- 

 vidual fish species or groups . The model also includes grazing 

 on groundfish by marine mammals, birds and other fish. Such 

 grazing is thought to be the main component of natural mortal- 

 ity. Computations based on conservative mammal population 

 estimates indicate that mammals consume about 2.5 million 



F-3 



