Greenpeace yesterday renewed its plea for a more precautionary approach to managing the Alaska pollock fishery after a National Marine Fisheries Service stock assessment revealed that the Alaska pollock population dropped 50 percent from 2007 to 2008.
In a press release, Greenpeace called the results of the stock assessment "startling" and warned that the Bering Sea ecosystem including whales, fur seals and Steller sea lions may be at risk of collapsing if the North Pacific Fishery Management Council doesn't reduce the 2009 Bering Sea pollock quota.
The council is due to set the quota in December. It was cut 28 percent to 1 million metric tons from 2007 to 2008.
"We've been calling for a more precautionary approach to managing this fishery for a long time, dating back to the early '90s," says John Hocevar, oceans campaign director for Greenpeace-USA.
The stock assessment Greenpeace is referring to is this summer's trawl survey of the mid-water pollock population, which totaled 940,000 metric tons, roughly half of last year's population. It doesn't include the near-bottom population, which is much higher this year.
"The 'report' that is circulating … represents only one piece of the data used in the analysis, albeit an important one," explains Jim Ianelli, a biologist with NMFS' Alaska Fisheries Science Center in Seattle.
"As with many observations taken on fish populations, they are affected by many processes, including the current temperature regime, which was unusually cold this summer," he says. "This same survey has also returned estimates that were much higher than expectations based on an integrated analysis. There is also a bottom trawl survey, which tends to estimate the near-bottom abundance, that was about 92 percent of what was expected based on last year's analysis. Combined with extensive at-sea scientific observer data, the analysis that is presently being undertaken will take all data into account to provide advice for next year's acceptable harvest level.
"Indications are that the 2006 year-class (pollock hatched in that year) are well above average, which is a sign that the stock reproductive capability remains healthy and that as these fish age, the population biomass is expected to grow," adds Ianelli.
