58 Reduced Chinook Salmon Prohibited Species Catch 58 Limits, Modify Chinook Salmon Savings Area
Purpose and Need
Chinook salmon bycatch control measures, originally implemented under Amendment 21b, were thought to be needed for two reasons. First, many Chinook salmon stocks are fully utilized, and uncontrolled bycatch constitutes an additional, unaccounted for allocation of the resources. Second, uncontrolled bycatch levels exceeding recent highs may lead to conservation problems for Alaskan and Canadian Chinook salmon populations. In 1996, the Magnuson -Stevens Act was amended in 1996 by the Sustainable Fisheries Act. The new Act emphasized the importance of reducing bycatch to maintain sustainable fisheries. National Standard 9 of the Magnuson-Stevens Act mandates that conservation and management measures shall minimize bycatch, to the extent practicable, and shall minimize mortality where bycatch cannot be avoided. The objective of Amendment 58 is to reduce Chinook salmon bycatch in the BSAI groundfish fisheries.
Analysis
A 238-page E A/RIR/IRFA (final draft dated September 29, 1999) was prepared for this amendment. Five primary alternatives including the status quo were considered along with several options for seasonal allocation, area closures, and applicable fisheries. The alternatives not chosen would have established a time/area closure but without a PSC limit that triggered a closure, or established a closure based on an annual limit of 36,000 salmon. The preferred alternative was the most conservative in that it reduced the PSC limit to only 29,000 Chinook salmon taken in the pollock fisheries.
Regulation Summary
Amendment 58 reduced the amount of Chinook salmon allowed to be taken as bycatch in BSAI trawl fisheries. Specifically, the adopted alternative did the following (1) reduced the chinook salmon PSC bycatch limit from 48,000 to 29,000 chinook salmon over a 4-year period, (2) implemented yearround accounting of chinook salmon bycatch in the pollock fishery, beginning on January 1 of each year, (3) revised the boundaries of the Chinook Salmon Savings Areas, and (4) set new closure dates. In the event the limit is triggered before April 15, the Chinook Salmon Savings Area closes immediately. The closure would be removed on April 16, but would be reinitiated September 1 and continue through the end of the year. If the limit were reached after April 15, but before September 1, then the areas would close on September 1. If the limit were reached after September 1, the areas would close immediately through the end of the year.
Results
Total number of Chinook salmon taken annually as bycatch in BSAI groundfish fisheries is shown in the table below.