The action came during the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s meeting in Seattle, Washington
The proposed action would consider increasing Chinook salmon prohibited species limits and establishing an annual rollover of unused Chinook salmon PSC for the Gulf’s non-pollock, non-rockfish program trawl catcher vessel sector and/or the Central Gulf Rockfish Program catcher vessel sector.
National Standards of the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act require that the council balance objectives of achieving optimum yield, minimizing bycatch and minimizing adverse impacts on fishery-dependent communities. Chinook salmon PSC taken in the Gulf by trawl fisheries is a resource concern. The council previously set hard cap PSC limits that are below the incidental take amount that would trigger consultation under the Endangered Species Act. The trawl fishery is closed if the PSC hard cap is reached.
Since implementation of Chinook salmon PSC limits for the Gulf non-pollock groundfish trawl catcher vessel sector in 2015, the fishery has continued to show variable levels and unpredictable timing of salmon encounter, the council noted.
Potential closures and PSC encounter rates that vary from year to year or even week to week have created uncertainty for harvesters, and adversely affect trawl harvesters, crew, processors and coastal communities.
The motion passed by the council noted that alternatives to increase PSC limits or to provide more flexibility under the existing PSC limits were offered in light of new information and multiple years of experience fishing under constraining hard caps for these fisheries in a limited access fishery with variable and unpredictable PSC rates.
The proposed action would not modify other existing features of the Gulf Chinook salmon PSC limits for non-pollock trawl fisheries such as PSC rollovers from the rockfish program catcher vessel sector to the limited access catcher vessel sector, and National Marine Fishery Service’s ability to make in-season king salmon PSC limit reapportionments between certain trawl sectors.