A Dozen Coastal Alaska Legislators Ask Council for 50% cut in Bering Sea Halibut Bycatch
SEAFOODNEWS.COM By Peggy Parker - April 22, 2015
The letter, signed by twelve coastal legislators, ask the NPFMC to “adopt a regulation change this June to reduce halibut bycatch limits by 50 percent.”
The group of four senators and eight representatives are from most coastal communities in Alaska, with a few exceptions, most notably Kodiak.
The letter describes the “startling dynamic” of high volumes of bycatch in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) while directed landings of halibut have decreased over the past ten years.
“In 2014, the BSAI trawl fisheries killed and discarded seven times more individual halibut than the directed fishery in the same region landed,” the letter states.
“This bycatch total was overwhelmingly comprised of juveniles, weighing less than five pounds...
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