The Sitka Assembly is backing a change to fisheries policy that would limit trawl halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea. The move comes after a policy change last year at the national level led to a lawsuit filed against the National Marine Fishery Service.
Linda Behnken leads the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association. Speaking to the assembly at a meeting on May 28, she said a change to fishery management policy in 2015 to bring down the caps on halibut bycatch by 25 percent was a big win. Advocates then started to push the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to tie bycatch caps to the abundance of halibut, rather than a flat number.
“When the caps were set, there was a whole lot more halibut out there, and we reduced our directed fisheries,” Behnken said. “Everybody who targets halibut is conserved, but those bycatch caps stayed disproportionately high, to the extent that over the last decade, there was about 38 million pounds of halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea by this one sector that’s the biggest offender there.”
Behnken said in 2021, after six years of work, the National Marine Fisheries Service adopted an amendment tying trawl bycatch to abundance. Then lawyers got involved.
“After that amendment was implemented by the National Marine Fishery Service, the trawl sector filed a lawsuit against it,” Behnken said. “A group of us have moved to intervene on behalf of the federal government, to be part of the lawsuit so we can present our side of this case.”
While the Bering Sea is far from Southeast, Alaska, she said resolutions from Sitka and other communities would help demonstrate to the courts how important this action is to Alaska’s fishing communities.
Assembly member Chris Ystad, who co-sponsored the resolution, agreed.
“As a Southeast fisherman, an Alaskan and someone who enjoys halibut, I thought this was absolutely wonderful and necessary for the future of the resource, not just for commercial fishermen like myself, but for everyone who utilizes the resource,” Ystad said. “This is something that we’ve been needing in the fishery. It’s something that we’re slowly, slowly working towards is a little more accountability for all of our users.”
With little discussion, the assembly passed the resolution unanimously.
