Council to set final 2027-28 groundfish and Norton Sound crab limits in December

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is scheduled to set final 2027 and 2028 catch limits for Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska groundfish, and 2027 limits for Norton Sound red king crab, when it meets Dec. 4-9 at the Egan Center in Anchorage and online, according to a federal notice published Tuesday.

Before the council acts, its Scientific and Statistical Committee meets Nov. 30 through Dec. 3 to review stock assessment reports and recommend overfishing limits and acceptable biological catch. The council has said federal law bars it from setting a catch above those limits.

"Scientists are the ones that set the catch limits, or the overfishing limits and the acceptable biological catch limits. That's baked into federal law," Nicole Kimball, a council member, said at a Resource Development Council breakfast forum in September.

The committee also reviews the Norton Sound red king crab assessment. Last December, the council set that stock's 2026 overfishing limit at 193 metric tons and its acceptable catch at 135 metric tons. The council's Advisory Panel reviews the specifications Dec. 2-5.

The groundfish limits now in force were set last December without new assessments. A lapse in federal funding from Oct. 1 to Nov. 12, 2025, kept scientists from finishing them. In October, the council adopted proposed 2027 and 2028 Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish specifications as a rollover of 2026 figures, with Pacific cod and Bering Sea sablefish catches adjusted for state-waters fisheries. The final numbers in December will rest on stock assessment reports released in November.

Under the current specifications, the National Marine Fisheries Service set the combined Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands target groundfish total allowable catch at 2.0 million metric tons for both 2026 and 2027, the top of the range federal rules allow for the region.

Draft assessments recommend a 20% cut to the 2027 sablefish limit and a Gulf pollock limit about 17% higher for 2027, followed by a cut in 2028.

Written comments close at noon Alaska time Friday, Nov. 27, through the council's online eAgenda.

The fisheries service typically publishes the final rule in March. The Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish limits now in force run through March 18, 2027.