Alaska's Trawl Bycatch Reduction Plan Will Include Some Type of Catch Share (Fish Radio)
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Fish Radio with Laine Welch] July 21, 2015
This is Fish Radio. I’m Laine Welch – Help craft the new Gulf plan to cut trawl bycatch—more after this
Crafting a program to reduce trawl bycatch in Gulf groundfish fisheries has been underway for three years. In October the North Pacific Council will begin piecing the new program together in a process that could take several years.
"In the terms of better management of all the groundfish fisheries in the Gulf of Alaska, in terms of providing incentives to reduce bycatch, better utilize groundfish species, improve operational efficiencies – so the program goals are very broad."
Rachel Baker is a fisheries management specialist at NOAA Fisheries in Juneau. The new program will include some form of catch shares to user groups and possibly communities. NOAA and the Council are now preparing an Environmental Impact statement, or EIS, to analyze potential impacts to the human environment...
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