Meateater- Trawl Bycatch

[kwackkillncrew]

Well this crawler business IS affecting the fish I catch/eat. In the short period of time I've been fishing Kodiak (most years since 2019, so not even talking 'the good old days') there is an observable and regulatory difference. King salmon this year is emergency order of 1 (down from 2). In addition to additional days added for zero halibut fishing. Halibut used to be 2 with one over either 31" or 32" which was doable, they lowered it to 28" and those were only occasionally caught (plenty of 28-32" though), this year it looks like that is reduced to 27".

Just so other people know, those halibut regs and no fish days are for charters only. Private boats aren't effected.....yet, but its only a matter of time.



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[Hatchet]

Coast Guard removes release, social media posts on $65K Alaska roe seizure

The U.S. Coast Guard has removed a press release and social media posts about a high-profile pollock roe seizure in Dutch Harbor

www.alaskasnewssource.com

 

[WalterH]

Meanwhile, king salmon fishing across most of southcentral and northwestern Alaska is and has been closed, minus a few hatchery fisheries, for the last handful of years due to runs not meeting minimum escapement goals.

Halibut and groundfish IFQ quotas, the share of these fish that go to commercial fisherman, are at an all-time low this year due to population declines.

Crabs live on the bottom of the ocean, in case anyone was wondering...

 

[william schmaltz]

Maybe some time but it would be Louisiana no one cooks better food than the cajuns. I guess as long as i can get crawfish shipped here i will be fine and some oysters. Do we still get crab since they are caught in traps?

Several of the Bering Sea crab seasons have been cancelled or quotas have been reduced so much that they’re hardly worth fishing - there’s one pretty obvious big flashing red light as to why…..

No one hates the trawling industry more than the Bering Sea crab guys.

 

[KurtR]

Several of the Bering Sea crab seasons have been cancelled or quotas have been reduced so much that they’re hardly worth fishing - there’s one pretty obvious big flashing red light as to why…..

No one hates the trawling industry more than the Bering Sea crab guys.

Well then f those trawling guys. I really like king and snow crab.

 

[kwackkillncrew]

Seems like i need to some how suspend my crab pot to catch them mid water crab schools.

 

[AKBC]

Don't forget that trawlers were dragging during the king salmon "good old days." Orcas and other marine mammals are the primary cause for king salmon declines - https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1910930116. "Killer whales are estimated to currently consume over 2.5 million adult Chinook salmon each year."

We will not cull orcas or other marine mammals so we must reduce human mortality. Commercial and sport salmon fisheries have been closed and its way past time for trawl bycatch of salmon to be reduced or ideally eliminated. Trawl bycatch of halibut, crab and other bottom fish is entirely unacceptable.

 

[kwackkillncrew]

well the trawlers scooped up a few orcas so they saved a few kings i suppose, but then netted them kings a day later.

Cause of Death Determined for 11 Killer Whales Incidentally Caught in Fishing Gear in Alaska in 2023

Majority of whales belong to Eastern North Pacific Alaska Resident stock.

www.fisheries.noaa.gov

 

[IronNoggin]

This has been going on for a very long time.
Via DNA analysis, it was proven that a huge amount of this bycatch of Chinook (Kings for some, Springs for others) were West Coast Canadian fish, and a decent amount of lower 48 fish.

In fact two years ago, that bycatch exceeded the annual quota given to our Canadian Troller fleets.

Disgusting.

 

[WalterH]

Don't forget that trawlers were dragging during the king salmon "good old days." Orcas and other marine mammals are the primary cause for king salmon declines - https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1910930116. "Killer whales are estimated to currently consume over 2.5 million adult Chinook salmon each year."

That study covered the entire west coast of N. America. The impact on kings from predation vs. fisheries harvest really varies from place to place.

The study did not cover the Bering Sea, which is the primary area of concern being the hub of much of the trawling activity and also where the vast majority of Alaska's kings grow up.

 

[WalterH]

This has been going on for a very long time.
Via DNA analysis, it was proven that a huge amount of this bycatch of Chinook (Kings for some, Springs for others) were West Coast Canadian fish, and a decent amount of lower 48 fish.

In fact two years ago, that bycatch exceeded the annual quota given to our Canadian Troller fleets.

Disgusting.

The kings encountered in the Gulf of Alaska trawl fisheries and the winter king fisheries in southcentral Alaska and Prince William Sound are mostly made up of L48 fish, WA, OR, and BC. I think Alaska stocks usually make up about 12% and those are mostly SE AK fish.

The Bering trawl fishery is a different story.

Most of western and northern Alaska's kings rear in the Bering.

NOAA/NMFS was publishing their genetic testing on chinook bycatch in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska pollock trawl fishery every year. They stopped making the results public in 2021 after concern about the health of Alaska's king stocks had been building for quite a while.

The 10-year average shows that typically between 50 and 60% of the kings caught as bycatch in these trawl fisheries are from Alaska, with the vast majority of those being from "Coastal Western Alaska" and a smaller percentage being from the "Northern Alaska Peninsula.


No wonder they are trying to keep this quiet...


Sources

Genetics Research at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center

We conduct a variety of genetic research on Pacific salmon, groundfish, and forage fish species to comply with regional, national, and international agreements and treaties for managing marine resources.

www.fisheries.noaa.gov

 

[WalterH]

One of the key talking points from the trawl industry these days is that most of the kings they catch aren't AK kings, so why should Alaskan's care?. While that may be true if you lump the Bering Sea and Gulf fisheries together, it is not true in the Bering.

In rebuttal, it is important to not only look at more recent data, but also trends over time.

Check this shizzle out.

% of Alaska kings in the Bering Sea trawl bycatch, 2008-2020.

2020 – 65%
2019 – 55%
2018 – 52%
2017 – 51%
2016 – 47%
2015 – 51%
2013 – 64%
2012 – 74%
2011 – 77%
2010 – 87%
2008 – 95.9%

In 2010, 20% of the total # of kings sampled were from the Upper Yukon, 14% from the middle Yukon, and 11% from the middle Yukon. More recently, Yukon kings make up 1-2% of the king bycatch in the Bering. They are statistically insignificant and residents along the Yukon and Kusko rivers who have traditionally depended on kings for subsistence and survival haven't been able to harvest them for years now.

Here is the data for the Gulf of AK trawl fishery for the same time period, again % of AK kings in the total number sampled.

2020 – 14%
2019 – 26%
2018 – 18%
2017 – 13%
2016 – 15%
2013 – 14%
2012 – 19%
2011 – 29%

Now this isn't a terribly deep data set, but it sure looks like a trend to me.

Why don't AK kings make up a higher percentage of the total king bycatch? Because they have been all but wiped out!!!! The trawl nets cant catch them if they aren't there.


The data going back farther was collected and presented in a different format but still shows the same. AK kings used to make up the majority of bycatch in these fisheries until their numbers got low enough that the runs started crashing, as they continue to do today.

 

[Oregon]

Juice ain’t worth the squeeze. I heard about a haulback(documented) that had 5310 chinook in it. That’s an entire run of 2 of our local rivers. The legendary Kenai shut down.
They claim “ocean conditions”.
My definition of “ocean conditions” is now: “how many did trawlers kill”.
That’s ocean conditions.

 

[Mangata]

Need the push that we had to ban Pebble mine to now be directed at the trawl fleet.

 

[kwackkillncrew]

ya, but the pebble mine was never actually started, i think shutting something down thats been running for years that is currently filling people pockets with money will be more difficult.

 

[Marbles]

I have heard commercials guys talk about what they kill and throw back. The problem is well known and has been fir years and having heard the admissions from the horses mouth, I rather dismiss those who claim different as untrustworthy.

My answer is don't let anything get through back. If it crosses the gunwales it must be kept. Give a quote by pounds for each species of bycatch and once a boat or captain reaches the limit there season is done. Captain cannot hop to a different boat, boat cannot swap captains. Crew can go work for someone else though.

I see no value in throwing a dead shaker king back, I do see value in turning it into something if dead anyway, even if only canned fish or fertilizer.

 

[Mangata]

ya, but the pebble mine was never actually started, i think shutting something down thats been running for years that is currently filling people pockets with money will be more difficult.

Concur, I was referring to the groundswell of support that gave momentum to blocking Pebble. Agree that situation is different but the threat to our king runs is even more dire than the threat that Pebble posed.

 

[Marbles]

Concur, I was referring to the groundswell of support that gave momentum to blocking Pebble. Agree that situation is different but the threat to our king runs is even more dire than the threat that Pebble posed.

The Pebble situation had the advantage of pitting two industries against each other (mining v commercial sockeye fishing), which helped with funding and making the tree hugger label not stick.

A push of normalish people against industry is easier to attack and harder to fund.