NPFMC directs NOAA to update pollock roe rules after seizure highlighted regulatory gap

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council passed two motions during B report deliberations directing NOAA Fisheries to modernize pollock roe retention regulations and clarify rules governing prohibited species catch disposition, both of which passed without objection.

The first motion, brought by council member Vanderhoeven, directed NOAA Fisheries to update pollock roe retention regulations and related catch accounting rules under the NMFS B2 management report. The second, brought by council member Pamplin, called for a holistic review of prohibited species catch disposition rules, including clarifying what processors may do with PSC that has already been caught and landed at the dock. Both motions followed testimony describing a disconnect between how the industry currently operates and regulations written before 1998, regulations that predate significant changes brought by the American Fisheries Act.

Trent Hartill, testifying for American Seafoods, told the council: "The PRR calculations in regulation often do not reflect the actual recovery on board these vessels." John Henderscheidt of Phoenix Processor described a seizure of roe earlier this year after an offload number differed from the sum of daily production reports by roughly half a percent, noting the discrepancy reflected his company's account of the event.

A Coast Guard representative, noting that the Coast Guard does not typically comment on motions but felt it appropriate given the enforcement action involved, framed the practical case for updating the rules: "Moving to a straightforward calculation of allowable retention of pollock roe based on flow scale catch data with observer coverage in the required electronic logbooks would streamline this process for at-sea enforcement." The representative added that the current system "requires complex back-calculating from primary product to determine round weight equivalent, or RWE, based on standard product recovery rates," and that there "could be errors induced in these calculations based on the misclassification of products."

Multiple testifiers, including Glenn Merrill of Glacier Fish Company, echoed the call for broader regulatory review, noting that product recovery rates "were established based on idealized studies that were conducted in the 1990s and 1980s" and are "not reflective of our production today." Council member Vanderhoeven, in speaking to her motion, said she was "optimistic that this exercise to modernize the ROE retention regulations may provide a template, or at least an opportunity for lessons learned, how to address other outdated regulations that need modernizing."