Purpose and Need

To reduce discards, the Council adopted an improved retention and utilization program (IR/IU) for all groundfish target fisheries. This action was deemed necessary to address one of the Council's comprehensive fishery management goals, adopted in 1984, to “minimize the catch, mortality, and waste of non-target species and reduce the adverse impacts of one fishery on another.” The Council also recognized that fish caught as bycatch in one fishery represent an allocation away from any target fishery for the bycatch species. In addition, a priority objective of the FMP is to “provide for the rational and optimal use, in a biological and socioeconomic sense, of the region's fisheries resources as a whole.” 

The IR/IU program was intended to improve utilization and effective control/reduction of bycatch and discards in the fisheries off Alaska to address the following problems:

 1) bycatch and discard loss of groundfish, crab, herring, salmon, and other nontarget species; 

2) economic loss and waste associated with the discard mortality of target species harvested but not retained for economic reasons; 

3) inability to provide for a long-term, stable fisheries-based economy due to loss of fishery resources through wasteful fishing practices;

4) the need to promote improved retention and utilization of fish resources by reducing waste of target groundfish species to achieve long-term sustainable economic benefits to the nation.

Analysis

A 200-page analysis (Secretarial review draft dated September 3, 1997) reviewed a variety of bycatch reduction plans that had been discussed by the Council since 1993. While other alternatives were discussed, primary focus was given to these three alternative programs:

 1) individual fishing quotas for groundfish species; 

2) a “Harvest Priority” program that would provide for quota set-asides for vessels exhibiting low bycatch rates of nontarget species;

3) retention and utilization mandates, with built-in incentives for fishing operations to avoid unwanted species. 

In the 1997 Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries, a total of 258,000 mt of groundfish was discarded, equating to about 15% of the total groundfish catch. The analysis determined that pollock, Pacific cod, rock sole, and yellowfin sole represent approximately 76 percent of the total discards of allocated groundfish in the BSAI groundfish fisheries. The Council concluded that by requiring 100 percent retention of these four species, initially pollock and Pacific cod, and subsequently yellowfin and rock sole, the Council's objective of “substantially reducing discards of unprocessed groundfish” in these fisheries could be achieved.

Regulation Summary

Amendment 49 required all vessels fishing for groundfish in the BSAI to retain all pollock and Pacific cod beginning January 1, 1998, and all rock sole and yellowfin sole beginning January 1, 2003. It established a 15-percent minimum utilization standard for all at-sea processors.

Results

Beginning in 1998, 100% retention of pollock and Pacific cod was required, regardless of how or where it was caught. Only fish not fit for human consumption can be legally discarded. This measure dramatically reduced overall discard of groundfish. For example in 1997, about 22,100 mt of cod (8.6% of the cod catch) and 94,800 mt of pollock (8.2% of the pollock catch) were discarded. In 1998, discard amounted to only 4,300 mt of cod (2.2%) and 16,200 mt of pollock (1.6%). Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands rock sole and yellowfin sole retention were to be required beginning in 2003; the delay would allow for development of new markets and gear technological responses by the vessels engaged in these fisheries. These retention requirements were expected to reduce overall discard rates (all species) from about 15% to about 5%. The implementation of IR/IU for rock sole and yellowfin sole was repealed in 2003 (see Amendment 75).