North Pacific Council Keeps Bering Sea Canyons Open and Asks for Further Monitoring  The NPFMC decided on Friday that coral densities in the Bering Sea canyons are too low to warrant closure of any area around the Pribilof Canyon. They also noted that corals and sponges are too deep to be especially vulnerable to fishing gear. “Scientific evidence does not suggest there is a risk to the deep-sea coral present in the Pribilof and Zhemchug canyons and adjacent slope areas,” said Council member Bill Twiet. The Council did call for updated data on distribution, intensity, and depth of fishing effort in areas of known and predicted coral abundance. They also asked the Alaska Fisheries Science Center to report on changes in coral frequency, composition and distribution in the trawl survey and changes in trawl and fixed gear effort in areas where the model predicted coral abundance. Alaska’s statewide salmon catch has exceeded 256 million fish making the 2015 catch the second highest harvest total in recent memory according to Peggy Parker. By species, the catch totals were: 183.5 million pinks, 53.1 million reds or sockeyes, 15.8 million chum, 3.6 million coho, and half a million chinook salmon. In other news Russia’s largest bank Sberbank, has signed an agreement with the Sakhalin government to create a “Fish Stock Exchange” that will conduct domestic fish auctions in the region. The state says the Exchange will increase the flow of fish traded in the domestic market. The $70 million auction plan is expected to launch by November 2016. Plans are also in place to expand the program to other markets across Russia. Meanwhile, Norway and Russia agreed to keep next year’s Barents Sea cod and haddock quotas at 2015 levels. This does mean each of the quotas will be set above advice from ICES. Finally, we run our breaking news story from Friday about the ADF&G’s decision to slash the Bering Sea snow crab quota 40 percent for the 2015/16 season. The quota is now set a 40.6 million pounds, which is split between the IFQ and CDQ groups. Snow crab fishing will commence this week on October 15.