Federal proposal would rewrite 1993 trawl gear rule to clearly allow salmon excluders

The National Marine Fisheries Service filed a proposed rule Friday that would rewrite Alaska's federal definition of pelagic trawl gear, in place since 1993, to clearly allow salmon excluders, sensors, lights and flotation. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council recommended the change. It covers federal waters in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska, where the gear targets pollock.

NMFS adopted the current definition in 1993 after some fishermen in 1991 and 1992 rigged nets that met the rules but fished like bottom trawls, which raised halibut and crab bycatch. The definition bars metallic components other than connectors or a net-sounder device and limits flotation to what a net sounder needs. NMFS says the limits can catch excluder parts such as weighted flapper panels, which block escape holes while the vessel is under power and drop when water flow slows so salmon can get out.

The limits also reach the codend, the closed end of the net where catch collects, because a 1996 national rule treats it as part of the net. The proposal would exempt the codend, where crews commonly use floats and chain.

Under the new definition, pelagic trawl gear would need only to have no discs, bobbins or rollers forward of the codend and no chafe protection on the footrope or fishing line. Other metal limits would drop except for chain in the middle of the net: no piece longer than 10 feet and no more than 100 linear feet in all.

The rule would not itself require excluders. Under Amendment 110, put in place in 2016, vessels that sign incentive plan agreements must already use excluders while fishing for pollock in the Bering Sea; current designs target Chinook salmon. In February, the council voted 8-3 for chum bycatch measures that include an excluder requirement aimed at chum. NMFS said it is reviewing that recommendation separately.

"The Chinook excluders are already required. Chum are different," Nicole Kimball of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association said at a Resource Development Council forum Sept. 3.

NMFS says harvest limits, salmon bycatch limits, fishing areas and habitat closures would not change, and no current vessel owner would need to change gear. Comments are due 30 days after the rule's scheduled Nov. 16 publication in the Federal Register, through the regulations.gov docket.