Purpose and Need

Since 1990, the TACs specified for pollock in the Western and Central Regulatory Areas have been divided into four equal quarterly allowances, which became available on the 1st of January, June, July, and October. The quarterly allowance system was implemented as part of Amendment 19 to limit excessive harvests of roe-bearing pollock and provide a more stable year-round pollock fishery for GOA-based vessels and processors. In November 1990, NMFS listed the Steller sea lion (SSL) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act and subsequently approved Amendment 25, which further subdivided the annual TAC specified for pollock in the W/C Regulatory Area into three management districts (Statistical Areas 610, 620, and 630). This action was implemented to avoid a concentration of fishing effort in time and/or space that could cause localized depletions of SSL prey and exacerbate the decline of SSL. Its effect was to divide the pollock TACs in the W/C Regulatory Areas into 12 individual allowances (four quarterly openings in each of the three management districts).

In August 1995, GOA pollock industry members submitted a proposal to combine the third and fourth quarterly allowances of pollock TAC into a single seasonal allowance of 50% of the TAC released on September 1, rather than the current quarterly releases of 25% on July 1 and October 1. Representatives of the inshore sector of the Bering Sea pollock fishery requested that the opening date for the combined third and fourth quarter allowance be delayed until October 1 so that Bering Sea-based vessels would have time to finish the Bering Sea non-roe pollock fishery before the start of the final pollock season in the W/C Regulatory Areas.

Several problems were identified with the current quarterly allowance system for pollock in the W/C Regulatory Area: 

1) Since 1991, chum salmon bycatch had been approximately 500% higher during the third quarter pollock opening than any other quarter.

2) The third quarter pollock fishery conflicted with summer salmon processing activities.

3) Declining pollock stocks and escalating fishing effort had made the GOA pollock fishery increasingly difficult to manage, especially during the fourth quarter.

4) Some GOA pollock fishery participants had requested the Council maintain concurrent GOA and Bering Sea pollock seasons to discourage the Bering Sea-based fleet from participating in GOA pollock openings.

Analysis

A 35-page EA/RIR (draft dated February 1996) considered three opening date options for a combined third and fourth quarter allowance; September 1, September 15, and October 1. A coalition of Bering Sea and central Gulf-based processors and vessels submitted a compromise proposal to the Council in January 1996 to establish an October 1 opening date for the Western Gulf Regulatory Area and a September 1 opening date for the Central Gulf Regulatory Area. Western Gulf-based processors and fishermen expressed dissatisfaction with the compromise proposal because an October 1 opening date in the Western Regulatory Area would facilitate entry by Bering Sea-based vessels. However, the Council subsequently recommended that NMFS implement this compromise proposal as the preferred option. The Council believed that an October 1 opening date for the Western Regulatory Area and a September 1 opening date for the Central Regulatory Area would achieve the objectives outlined above while causing the least amount of dislocation for current participants in the fishery. NMFS ultimately implemented a single opening of September 1 for both areas based on additional public comments on the proposed rule. The simultaneous opening was believed to disperse effort, resulting in more manageable fisheries and a more equitable distribution of fishing opportunity.

Regulation Summary

Amendment 45 authorized seasonal allowances of pollock total allowable catch (TAC) to be specified for the combined Western/Central (W/C) Regulatory Areas of the GOA. The third and fourth quarterly allowances of pollock TAC were combined in the W/C areas into a single seasonal allowance that would be available on September 1. Therefore, the pollock TACs were divided into three seasonal allowances: 25% of TAC available on January 1, 25% of TAC available on June 1, and 50% of TAC available on September 1. This action complemented a regulatory amendment to delay the start of the Bering Sea pollock “B” season from August 15 to September 1 starting in 1996.

Results

The three-season allocation of pollock under Amendment 45 was only in effect for the 1996-98 seasons, after which a regulatory amendment implementing reasonable and prudent alternatives (RPAs) for SSL under Amendment 25 returned the management regime to quarterly pollock allowances.

The Council has revisited seasonal pollock allocations on several occasions since the implementation of Amendment 45, largely in the context of minimizing Chinook salmon bycatch which is more prevalent in the fall. In October 2001, following a federal court order for NOAA and the Council to further justify the fishery management program’s impacts to SSLs, a comprehensive and stringent suite of fishery management measures (Amendment 70) was developed by the Council’s RPA Committee (later replaced by the SSL Mitigation Committee) to minimize potential competition for prey between fisheries and the endangered western stock of SSL.

SSL protection measures for the groundfish fishery currently include (1) global harvest controls for Steller sea lion prey species (pollock, Pacific cod, and Atka mackerel); (2) spatial harvest controls specific to prey species, gear type, and proximity to rookery, haul-out, or forage areas to limit prey species removal in an area; (3) temporal harvest controls for pollock, Pacific cod, and Atka mackerel, including seasonal apportionments to limit prey species removal during certain times of the year; and (4) a vessel monitoring system requirement for all vessels (except vessels using jig gear) fishing for pollock, Pacific cod, or Atka mackerel.