Federal managers shift Bering Sea cod away from trawl boats for third time in a month

For the third time in about a month, federal fishery managers are taking Bering Sea cod that trawl boats won't catch this year and giving it to fleets that can.

The latest temporary rule, filed Tuesday and set to take effect Thursday, moves 200 metric tons of Pacific cod, about 440,000 pounds, from trawl catcher vessels to the Amendment 80 fleet. Catcher vessels catch fish and deliver it to processors. The Amendment 80 boats are factory trawlers that catch and process their fish at sea.

The National Marine Fisheries Service said trawl catcher vessels won't be able to catch that 200 tons of their 2026 quota, and the Amendment 80 fleet can. Moving it lets the full Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands cod catch limit be caught, the agency said. The rule doesn't say why the catcher vessels are falling short.

With this move, the trawl catcher-vessel fleet has given up 1,025 tons since mid-October, about 2.3 million pounds, leaving it about 25,000 tons for the year.

Most of that went to small boats. An Oct. 13 rule moved 350 tons to hook-and-line and pot boats under 60 feet, whose Bering Sea cod fishery reopened Sept. 1. An Oct. 26 rule gave those small boats another 400 tons and moved 75 tons to the American Fisheries Act catcher/processors, a separate factory trawler fleet whose cod fishing closed in July after it reached its limit for the year.

Each move came within about a week of new catch data. The agency skipped public comment on the latest rule, saying a delay would keep it from acting on the latest catch data and keep the full catch limit from being taken.