Canada and Alaska Challenge NMFS on Halibut Bycatch
SEAFOODNEWS.COM By Peggy Parker and John Sackton - May 26, 2015
Letters from high-ranking officials at Canada’s Department of Fisheries and Oceans and Alaska’s Department of Fish and Game, both addressing issues around the halibut bycatch caps in the Bering Sea, were sent to NMFS last Friday.
The first, from former IPHC Commissioner Michael Pearson, now Deputy Minister for Fisheries Management Operations in DFO, went to Eileen Sobeck, head of NMFS, encouraging her support for significant decreases in halibut bycatch and sharing Canada’s perspective of obligations of both countries as the two signatories of the halibut treaty.
The second letter was from Alaska’s Fish & Game Commissioner Sam Cotten, who called for NOAA General Council to conduct a full review of NMFS/Alaska’s recusal determinations that removed the voting privileges...
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