Purpose and Need

Amendment 11 was proposed in response to concerns that the domestic annual harvest was being dominated by the joint venture processing fishery (domestic catcher vessels delivering to foreign processing vessels).  Since 1977, the pollock fishery in the BSAI evolved from an entirely foreign-harvested fishery to a predominantly domestic-harvested fishery. Yet the volume of fish delivered to foreign processors continued to largely exceed the amount delivered to domestic shore-based processors.  In 1986, nearly 95% of the total 886,000 mt domestic annual harvest was harvested in joint venture operations.

The transition to domestic-dominated fisheries was also accompanied by a trend toward harvesting more pollock early in the season, from January-April. Prior to 1980 and the advent of the joint venture fisheries, less than 25% of the pollock harvest was taken before April. By 1987, 73% of the pollock harvest had been harvested by May in the joint venture fisheries. There are two economic advantages to harvesting early in the year: 1) spawning pollock populations are highly aggregated, improving catch per unit effort, and 2) the open access nature of the fishery provides incentive to fish as soon as possible.  Higher catch rates posed a significant biological risk; at times, catch rates were so high that it became economically feasible to retain only the valuable pollock roe and discard whole male and female carcasses (a practice called roe-stripping). 

Instead of relegating joint venture operations to specific areas and prohibiting roe-stripping, the Council adopted a split-season proposal to reduce the amount of pollock harvested by the joint venture fisheries during the spawning season. This action would prevent development of an efficient fishery for the highly valued pollock roe, as well as allow for the expansion of the domestic processing fishery. 

Analysis

An RIR/IRFA (final draft dated July 1987) and supplemental document was prepared for Amendment 11.  A draft analysis dated April 1987 considered seasonal apportionments of 0/100% and 50/50% for the joint venture pollock fisheries. The Council=s preferred alternative (40/60%) was bounded by the range considered, and therefore the available data and likely effects of the preferred action were sufficiently addressed in the draft analysis. The preferred 40/60% split was carried over in the final analysis as the preferred alternative, along with the no action alternative. Continuing to concentrate the pollock harvest in the beginning of the year (no action) was deemed unacceptable due to the possible risk to the reproductive potential of the pollock stocks.  The alternatives for revising the definitions of prohibited species catch and ABC included the preferred alternative and no action. 

Regulation Summary

The regulations implemented the following three provisions: 

1) Established an apportionment of the pollock TAC allocated to joint venture operations of 40% in the first season (January 1-April 15) and 60% in the second season (April 16-December 31). The measure was effective only in 1988 and 1989; 

2) Revised the definition of acceptable biological catch (ABC) to conform to that used by the Pacific Council and includes definitions for Athreshold@ and Aoverfishing;@ 

3)  Revised the definition of prohibited species to specifically name the species to be prohibited in the catches of foreign and domestic fishermen. Steelhead and Pacific salmon were added to the prohibited species list of halibut, herring, and king and Tanner crab for domestic and foreign fisheries; all salmonids are prohibited for foreign fishermen. 

The final rule for Amendment 11 also clarified that the definition of directed fishing (20% or more of the harvest) applied to domestic fisheries as well as foreign fisheries. This was inadvertently omitted from the proposed and final rule for BSAI Amendment 10. 

Results

By 1991, foreign fishing had been phased out of the EEZ and the entire BSAI groundfish harvest (2,126,000 mt) was taken by 391 U.S. vessels. The Council has also since prohibited the practice of roe-stripping of pollock.