NMFS closes Central Gulf cod for hook-and-line vessels 50 feet and up

Hook-and-line catcher vessels 50 feet and longer lose their directed Pacific cod fishery in the Central Gulf of Alaska on Sept. 1, and it does not come back this year. The National Marine Fisheries Service closure runs through Dec. 31, 2026.

The sector's 2026 total allowable catch was 1,387 metric tons, split into a directed fishing allowance of 1,187 metric tons and 200 metric tons reserved for cod taken incidentally in other groundfish fisheries. NMFS uses inseason closures to keep sector harvests within allowances the North Pacific Fishery Management Council sets annually through the federal stock assessment process, which has recommended conservative Gulf cod harvests amid anomalous warm conditions and recruitment uncertainty. Boats are not barred from touching cod: maximum retainable amounts under 50 CFR 679.20(e) and (f) still allow limited incidental retention.

The decision rested on data that became available Aug. 27. Kelly Denit, director of NOAA Fisheries' Office of Sustainable Fisheries, signed the action; it publishes in the Federal Register on Sept. 1.

Sept. 1 is also the day smaller boats go the other direction. Alaska Department of Fish and Game emergency orders open the Prince William Sound and Cook Inlet parallel cod seasons to longline hook vessels under 50 feet, and NMFS reopens cod for Bering Sea catcher vessels under 60 feet after reallocating 711 metric tons from jig vessels and 224 metric tons from larger hook-and-line vessels. That leaves roughly 422 metric tons available and lifts that sector's revised 2026 total allowable catch to 4,207 metric tons.

Federal management documents describe these vessels as heavily dependent on Central Gulf cod, with closures cutting landings, crew pay and deliveries to shore-based processors in Gulf communities. The council's advisory panel has argued that late-arriving catch data followed by abrupt closures creates instability and economic risk for Alaska's hook-and-line fleets. NMFS and stock assessment scientists counter that timely inseason closures are what keep removals within the total allowable catch.