Federal fisheries managers meeting in Anchorage Feb. 5-11 are scheduled to make final recommendations on changes to groundfish regulations to reduce chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery.
Members of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council are tasked with reviewing the draft environmental impact statement, including five alternatives, ranging from limits or “caps” on a number of chum salmon that may be caught in the pollock fishery and closure of all or part of the Bering Sea to pollock fishing once the cap is met, as well as changes to the pollock industry’s incentive plan agreements.
Of the five alternatives, as of the Jan. 30 deadline for written public comment, Alternative 4, calling for modifications of the pollock industry’s Incentive Plan Agreements (IPA), garnered a lot of support from environmental entities and commercial harvesters among the 123 comments submitted…