Chinook Closure in Gulf of Alaska shows Sector division is Working as planned
SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton - May 6, 2015]
The announcement by NMFS that they were closing one sector of the Gulf of Alaska trawl fishery due to chinook bycatch was actually the planned result of the new rules put in place for 2015.
Before the implementation of Amendment 97 for Gulf of Alaska Chinook bycatch, the previous allowance for chinook was shared by all sectors. However, sectors such as pollock and the rockfish co-operative have measures in place to montior and avoid bycatch. NMFS says "participants in the Trawl C/P and Rockfish Program CV Sectors have experience in coordinating some of their activities through private cooperative agreements and may be willing to change fishing behavior in response to the imposition of Chinook salmon PSC limits. If sector participants are successful in taking action to control Chinook salmon PSC to avoid a closure, gross revenues may not be negatively impacted."
For 2015, at the end of April, the pollock sector had taken 14% of their chinook allocation...
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