Fisheries of the Exclusive Economic Zone Off Alaska; Pollock Fishing in the Winter Herring Savings Area of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Management Area
Key claim: NOAA Fisheries has closed directed pollock trawling in the Winter Herring Savings Area of the Bering Sea, including for Community Development Quota vessels, to keep herring bycatch from exceeding existing limits.
Abstract
(Rule · Commerce Department, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for pollock by vessels using trawl gear in the Winter Herring Savings Area of the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands management area (BSAI). This action is required by regulation and is necessary to prevent herring prohibited species catch (bycatch) in the Winter Herring Savings Area by vessels directing fishing for pollock using trawl gear. This action includes prohibiting directed fishing for pollock in the Winter Herring Savings Area by vessels using trawl gear participating in the Community Development Quota Program.
Why this matters
In-season bycatch closures like this one are the primary mechanism NMFS uses to keep non-target species such as Pacific herring within established limits during the Bering Sea pollock fishery, one of the largest U.S. commercial fisheries. The closure constrains where Alaska pollock trawlers — including Community Development Quota vessels that channel revenue to western Alaska communities — may fish, without changing overall pollock quotas.