The Evolution and Integration of Approaches to Mitigate Chinook Salmon Bycatch in the Bering Sea Pollock Fishery

Bycatch is repeatedly noted as a primary problem of fisheries management and as a significant negative environmental impact of commercial fishing.  In the United States Bering Sea pollock fishery, Chinook and chum salmon bycatch reduction measures have included gear modifications but have principally consisted of area closures.  Significant areas of the pollock fishery have been closed by area closures at some points between 2002 and the present.  These closures have consisted of both large long-term Salmon Savings Area closures and short-term hotspot closures implemented by industry.  Bycatch levels of chum and Chinook salmon rose substantially since the beginning of the last decade, peaking in 2005 for chum and 2007 for Chinook, which led to the consideration of additional management action.

In 2009, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) passed Amendment 91 that imposed a “hard cap” on Chinook salmon in the pollock fishery beginning in 2011 which would close the fishery if it were reached.  One notable feature of salmon bycatch in the pollock fishery is that levels have varied greatly across recent decades.  Because salmon bycatch and salmon abundance are partially and not perfectly correlated, it is impossible to determine if low bycatch rates on the fishing ground represent effective avoidance by the fishery or low absolute salmon abundance when salmon stocks are weak and protection most important. To create a system with individual incentives for bycatch reduction at all levels of salmon abundance, the NPFMC coupled a hard cap that can be allocated to individual vessels with additional industry-developed “incentive plan agreements” (IPAs) that provide incentives for vessels to reduce bycatch even at bycatch levels well below the hard cap.

In this paper, we consider the effectiveness of different bycatch management actions that have been taken in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. We examine the effectiveness of spatial closures designed to reduce salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery and we compare management under spatial means with the Amendment 91 measures that were implemented in 2011.