Cooperative Research to Reduce Halibut Bycatch in the Bering Sea

Scientists with the Conservation Engineering group at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) have a long-standing, successful collaborative relationship with the commercial fishing industry in Alaska. Working cooperatively with fishing gear manufacturers, fishermen, and fishing industry representatives, we have developed several successful gear modifications to reduce bycatch of commercially important species and reduce impacts to benthic habitat. The most recent example of this successful working relationship is the testing of the new Greenline halibut excluder. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is considering halibut bycatch allocation reductions for the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands (BSAI) groundfish trawl fleets ranging from 10% to 50%. The BSAI groundfish fleets are trying to reduce their halibut bycatch on their own by using halibut excluders. Scientist’s with AFSC Conservation Engineering group were invited to ‘ride along’ on a commercial fishing vessel and deploy cameras and a scanning sonar to get a better understanding of how the excluder worked in a midwater trawl. The camera observations served to 1) observe fish behavior in relation to the excluder and 2) quantify escapement by both target and non-target species. The sonar was used to understand the shape of the excluder during fishing.