Alaska's seafood industry – already dealing with an uncertain future caused by crab season closures and a down year for the salmon fishery – has been dealt yet another blow with the early closure of Central Regulatory Area of the Gulf of Alaska (CGOA) pollock fishery.
The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) announced on 25 September all directed fishing for pollock by vessels using trawl gear in in the CGOA region was halted through the end of 2024 due to a Chinook salmon bycatch incident.
According to the Alaska Groundfish Data Bank, the Chinook bycatch incident occurred on 22 September.
“When this event occurred, both vessels were adhering to best fishing practices, including monitoring for salmon and communicating to each other on the grounds,” AGDB said in a release. “When the first vessel determined there was an unprecedented amount of salmon, the other vessel fishing nearby was immediately notified and that vessel hauled its gear and ceased fishing, likely resulting in significantly less salmon.”
According to the AGDB, both vessels had observer coverage on board, and that roughly 2,000 Chinook were caught. NOAA said as a result of the incident, the fleet had reached 19,486 Chinook salmon caught, surpassing its allowed bycatch limit of 18,316 salmon.
The fishery was supposed to run through 1 November. NOAA Federal Manager Josh Keaton told SeafoodSource that the closure will leave 49,869 metric tons (MT) of pollock in the water between regions 620 and 630.
According to Keaton, the fishery had so far caught 71,533 MT of pollock of the 90,937 MT available in the 620 region, leaving 19,404 MT in the water. In 630, the fishery had caught 20,122 MT out of the 50,587 MT available, with 30,465 MT still available to catch.
Keaton said the incident was a “lightning-strike” style event – difficult to predict as it represented a complete outlier from the norm. The average Chinook bycatch per vessel is around 10 to 20 fish for an entire fishing trip, he said.
“We have almost full monitoring on this fleet all the time, and every salmon is being delivered and every salmon is being counted,” Keaton said.
A closure of this type is a first for the region, according to Keaton.
AGDB Executive Director Julie Bonney told SeafoodSource the sudden end to the season has had an immediate impact on the community of Kodiak, Alaska, with impacts rippling through the supply chain.
“The estimated loss to the industry is approximately USD 9 million [EUR 8.1 million] in ex-vessel value, USD 50 million to USD 60 million [EUR 45 million to EUR 54 million] in first wholesale value and USD 400,000 to USD 500,000 [EUR 361,000 to EUR 451,000] in tax revenue to the city,” she said. “Affected jobs are 80 to 90 trawl vessel crew jobs, 800 to 1,000 processing worker jobs, and multiple marine service jobs, [including] truck drivers, shippers, [and] support businesses.”
OBI Seafoods President John Hanrahan said the closure will force the company to lay off about 50 workers, and that it will also mean fewer hours will be available for its remaining employees.
“We are disappointed about the closure. It negatively affects our fisherman, employees, and community by reducing their revenue during very difficult times,” Hanrahan told the Kodiak Daily Mirror. “For OBI, it takes away needed production volume that helps offset high fixed costs of operating an Alaska plant. These are short-term impacts, however; it will not have a material effect on our long-term future.”
While other fisheries in Alaska have received relief in the form of fishery disaster declarations – like the USD 277 million (EUR 248 million) it recently received in response to a number of disasters such as the 2021-2022 Alaska Bering Sea crab fisheries and multiple salmon fisheries – a season cancellation isn’t covered by federal fisheries disaster funding.
“There is no way to recover the loss from the closure of the fishery,” Bonney said. “Economic loss does not qualify for disaster relief according to the Magnuson-Stevens Act.”
