Small cod boats return Sept. 1 in the Bering Sea and Aleutians

Pacific cod boats under 60 feet get their fishery back Sept. 1, after being shut out since February.

Vessels using hook-and-line or pot gear in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands can fish for cod again at noon Alaska time, with roughly 422 metric tons left to catch before the season ends Dec. 31.

The fish are coming from two fleets that will not catch them. The National Marine Fisheries Service is moving 711 metric tons from jig gear and 224 metric tons from hook-and-line catcher vessels 60 feet and over, after the agency's regional administrator determined neither group would take its share this year. That raises the small-boat allocation to 4,207 metric tons.

It leaves the jig fleet and the larger hook-and-line boats with 10 metric tons each for the rest of the year.

The mechanism is 30 years old. A 1996 federal rule split Bering Sea and Aleutians cod at 2 percent jig, 51 percent fixed gear and 47 percent trawl, and built in an annual transfer of unused jig quota to fixed gear. NMFS has done it repeatedly, including twice in 2025 and again in April, when it moved 930 metric tons out of jig gear.

The jig sector's 2 percent share now amounts to 10 metric tons.

NMFS skipped advance public comment, citing catch data that arrived Aug. 25. Comments are due 15 days after the rule publishes Aug. 28.