Pollock official puts bycatch impact on Western Alaska runs at 1.9%

Bering Sea pollock bycatch reduces Western Alaska salmon returns by an average of 1.9 percent, Nicole Kimball of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association told a Resource Development Council forum Thursday, making the industry's case that its salmon catch is a small and closely watched share of a larger decline.

"There's 100% monitoring required by law," Kimball said, pointing to cameras on every trip, a shoreside salmon count and genetic sampling to trace where the fish came from. About half of the Chinook caught as bycatch comes from Western Alaska stocks, she said, and chum from the region averages 15 percent. The fleet also operates under hard caps, uses devices that let Chinook escape the nets, closes areas that turn into salmon hotspots as boats fish, and funds a genetics lab in Dutch Harbor through the Bristol Bay community development group.

A measure now awaiting federal approval would cap Western Alaska chum bycatch at 45,000 fish near the Alaska Peninsula from June 10 to Aug. 31, closing fishing areas if the cap is passed. It would not take effect before June 2028.

The people who fish the rivers say that is not enough. The Kuskokwim River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission reported that groundfish fisheries had killed 12,065 Chinook by June 18, 84 percent of it from pollock trawlers. The Yukon River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission calls the proposed cap insufficient while subsistence fishing stays closed on the river. Ocean Conservancy says the limit is both too high and too narrow in the area it covers.