Bycatch Becoming Massive Issue in BSAI and GOA: First Halibut, Now Sablefish, Soon Crab
Ten harvester groups from Alaska urged NOAA Fisheries Administrator Chris Oliver to consider “area closures, payback provisions, and even hard cap inseason closure authority” to reduce the over harvest of sablefish by catch in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska.
For the second year in a row, the Bering Sea trawl fishery caught more sablefish as bycatch than their allocation allowed -- by more than four times this year, and by more than two and a half times over the 2019 allocation. Together, that amounts to ...
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