That's right, trawlers win. But Kodiak crab stocks might be winners, too.
That's my assessment of today's action at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting in downtown Anchorage.
On a 9-2 vote, the council passed a plan to minimize the bycatch of bairdi Tanner crabs off the east coast of Kodiak Island.
The council considered simply closing large blocks of water to trawlers, particularly those using bottom-dragging nets that can accidentally catch and kill crab while in pursuit of groundfish.
But for the most part, the trawlers escaped that fate. Instead, the council gave the trawlers a way to keep fishing in most of waters proposed for closure. They can do this by modifying their trawl gear to have less impact on crabs.
These "trawl sweep modifications" reportedly have worked to reduce crab bycatch mortality in the Bering Sea.
Kodiak's trawl fleet as well as the island's major processors all pushed for the modified gear approach, rather than simply booting boats out of crabby areas.
Here's how council members voted on the final motion:
Voting yes
Jim Balsiger, Dave Benson, Cora Campbell, Sam Cotten, John Henderschedt, Dan Hull, Roy Hyder, Eric Olson (chairman), Bill Tweit
Voting no
Ed Dersham, Duncan Fields
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18 comments:
Duncan, I have changed my opinion of you. You have some integrity when it comes to our fisheries and the bycatch issue.
Shallow assessment of the issue Deckblog.
Come on Wes.....Details. Included in this decision is 100% observer coverage inside portions of the proposed closure area. Was I mistaken?
To characterize this as a trawler win is purely sensationalizing on your part. In the past trawlers legally have wreaked havoc on the bottom and have done so with no oversight by those who manage this fishery. Any consideration (restraint)the council approves, is a win for all fishermen working to promote sustainable fishing and working water fronts. You know this issue should have been solved locally but Julie B. and her contingent of rapers, pillagers, and plunderers offer no meaningful solutions with local folk to work with. Now this blog will get going.
This is a very incomplete portrayal of the outcome and extremely misleading. Your write up should include the increase in observer coverage, a major component of this action. Rather unprofessional one could say.
Any fisherman who will anonymously take pot shots at other fisherman are cowards and destroyers of fishing's future. All fisheries have bycatch, enviromental impact, ecosystem impact. All fisheries have diverse ranges in operator experience and operator ethics. To say one gear type is less impactive that another is not only unfairly judgemental, but simply untrue. Crabbing has one of the highest bycatch rates of any fishery anywhere in the world. It is state managed and there is little or no observer coverage. I am a crabber and I know first hand that we sometimes set back gear in heavy concentrations of females if we get a 20 average of keepers. If any future is possible then lies, exaggerations,propaganda and attacks have to stop. what would all crabbers think of a full view of every day on your back deck was put out there for the whole world to see and judge. I suggest you walk the walk before any more talking is done
Cap Skip....are you for real? Answer truthfully on these next questions, this is a test. Which user group is incidentally catching in excess of 100,000 salmon(all species)statewide? Which gear group legally kills/discards in excess of 13 million lbs(70 million dollars this years dock value)of halibut? Which gear group kills/discards tanner crab with no annual limit in the search of 14 cent/lb flatfish? Let us not so easily dismiss the photographic evidence brought before the council. These are not pot shots or propaganda, simply delivering the truth for all to decide. If a fishing future is what you desire, then help provide meaningful solutions for a sustainable fishing industry and enough with the we never catch any crab/salmon/halibut trawler propaganda.
Once again anonymous, why not put a name to the comments. How about all the halibut horned or crucified in the I.F.Q. fishery in trade for larger more valuable fish. Why not stop discarding the salmon and process them, river of origin is so easy to identify. Send proceeds to a fund to divide to the permit holders. In this instance bycatch/discard is illiminated and everyone wins. See, bycatch is often created by politics. At 0.3% of the tanner crab biomass annually in the entire ground fish harvest I guess a limit could be added. Halibut could also be utilized it is only discarded by laws not by fisherman's choice. Yes I am for real. I have been in the fishing business for over 30 years. Photographs of any crab vessel deck in heavy sorting areas would look just as bad.I don't go around bringing up all the bad things I have seen in other fisheries. Ask any old time crab captain, he'll tell you about loading ammunition by the pallet for shooting sea lions, or the salmon fisherman who directly compete with sea lions for salmon. Any fisherman who attacks another fisherman lives in a glass house. The only plausable motive is an agenda to further their interests. So keep on making comments hiding behind your computer monitor. Any person with truthful words would not hide. The only future is in honest and real dialog. No other harvest group is scrutinized as trawlers are. Again, stand up and put 100% observer coverage on your vessel as is called on for the trawl fleet and then you will have a shred of credibility to so harshly judge your fellow fisherman.
Capt Skip-What are you talking about? We don't horn off any halibut. We pull them aboard and twist the hook out of their mouth so they go back unscathed. When it comes to crabbing our bycatch is minimal in pounds of indiscriminate species we catch. We're fishing for crabs, so if we catch females and undersize it does mean we're killing them like a a dragger. We have very little bycatch in a pot gear, cod- we use for bait, or even yellowfin soul works. Wesley as usual you are so full of ---- since you are making the trawlers out to be the good guys. The NPFMC is a cabal of processors and fish magnates that do not use logic or get good data. I hope they all go to ----. I'm tired of the ocean being raped because someone with dollars in the right place take the place of conservation. Some one will do time, and it may not be in this life, if you know what I mean.
Fishermen vs Draggers. Major difference. As fishermen we are united against wholesale wanton waste called dragging. There is no split among fishermen. There are fishermen and there are (for the time being) draggers. Try to remember that.
Cap'n Skip is one of the most notorious tanner crab killers in Kodiak. Pity you don't get to land trawl-caught tanners.
(And yes, Cap'n Skip - call me a coward but I am hiding behind my Anonymous computer monitor, just as you used to hide behind partial observer coverage.)
Hey Cap Skip.....try tholepin, latest blog entry positively identifies you and your fellow trawlers for the their despicable behavior during last weeks pollock trips. Is this more pot shots? Just the FACTS sir. What say yee? Stand by for more facts on your ongoing destruction.
26,000 chinook salmon caught in 1 week by the GOA trawl fleet during pelagic pollock fishing....this nothing short of criminal. These are not acceptable numbers...Cap Skip tell me one more time that these are "anomalies" and not indicative of trawl activity. Stop it already before you guys kill and destroy sustainable fishermen's ability to make a living.
Where is the outrage....go to NOAA site to see the numbers for yourself on the latest chinook salmon bycatch numbers. Check out the boat names many familiar names from the "DIRTY DOZEN" list. Julie B. must be working overtime to put this fire out. As bad as the chinook numbers are, we will most certainly present this info at the DEC. NPFMC meetings. Good luck squirming at of this mess. Unlike the tanner debate which you guys used the "data gap" so brilliantly. You will not have that advantage this round.
NOAA website lists down to the exact number of chinook each vessels bycatch during last week deliveries. This needs to stop.....We can not continue to allow this type of waste by trawl sector. 26,000 chinook killed for those cheap fish sticks.
Hey Wes...Here is the first paragraph from the NPFMC newsletter which I just received.
The Council adopted three area closures around Kodiak, to reduce bycatch of Tanner crab in the GOA groundfish fisheries: in Marmot Bay, Chiniak Gully, and ADFG area # 525702. Marmot Bay will be permanently closed to fishing with trawl gear, except those vessels using pelagic trawl gear to fish for pollock. The remaining two areas are closed to all vessels using nonpelagic trawl gear unless they have 1005 observer coverage. For all pot vessels, in order to fish in any of the three identified areas, vessels must have 30% observer coverage.
What say you Cap Skip????????
Holy sh#$ the draggers just caught another 4600 chinook in the Gulf of Alaska. When will it stop? The lower 48 had to be notified if GOA topped 40,000 chinook limit. Wonder what they are thinking now that we stand at around 62,000 chinook with the number climbing daily?????
Cap Skip....are you out there?????
OOps....100% not 1005
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