Bering Sea Pollock Cooperatives under the American Fisheries Act

In the early 1990s, excess harvesting and processing capacity increased the costs incurred by participants in the Bering Sea (BS) pollock fishery, and reduced the quality and value of the product. Contentious allocation disputes between the inshore and offshore sectors contributed to uncertainty within the industry. In 1995, a moratorium on entry of new vessels into the groundfish fishery was implemented.  In October 1998, Congress enacted the American Fisheries Act (AFA), which “rationalized” the Bering Sea (BS) pollock fishery by identifying the vessels and processors eligible to participate in the fishery and allocating pollock among those eligible participants. Under the AFA, the BS pollock total allowable catch is allocated among the Western Alaska Community Development (CDQ) Program and the AFA inshore sector, catcher/processor sector, and mothership sector.  The AFA allowed for the formation of fishery cooperatives within the non-CDQ sectors.  The purpose of these AFA cooperatives is to further subdivide each sector’s or inshore cooperative’s pollock allocation among participants in the sector or cooperative through private contractual agreements.  The cooperatives manage these allocations to ensure that individual vessels and companies do not harvest more than their agreed upon share.  The cooperatives also facilitate transfers of pollock among the cooperative members, enforce contract provisions, and participate in the intercooperative agreements to reduce salmon bycatch.  The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) does not manage the sub-allocations of pollock among cooperative members, rather the cooperatives control the harvest by their member vessels so that the pollock allocations to each inshore cooperative and to the catcher/processor and mothership sectors are not exceeded.  NMFS retains the authority to close directed fishing for pollock by a sector if vessels in that sector continue to fish once the sector’s seasonal allocation of pollock has been harvested.