By Yereth Rosen, Alaska Beacon
Updated: 1 minute ago Published: 1 minute ago
On fishing vessels that catch seafood in federal waters off Alaska, key information about performance and compliance comes from employees observing the catch or from electronic equipment that monitors the number and types of marine life. who get on board.
Due to concerns about salmon bycatch and fishing-related marine mammal deaths, there have been calls to increase observer coverage in federally managed fisheries off Alaska.
About half of the 463 vessels that participated in those federally managed fisheries last year had human observers or electronic monitoring systems on board, according to an annual report presented to fisheries managers meeting this week in Kodiak. About 44% of the ships’ voyages were covered by these types of observations, according to the report. Those percentages were slightly higher than those recorded in 2022, when about 44% of ships had human observers or electronic monitoring, and about 40% of voyages were covered.
The North Pacific Observer Program’s 2023 annual report was presented to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee on Monday and to the council’s Advisory Panel on Tuesday. It will also be presented to the full council in the coming days.
The report is prepared by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service.
Around 350 individual observers were trained and equipped to be deployed on vessels to report on seafood catches in 2023, according to the annual report. Their reporting duties included counts of non-target species accidentally caught, hooked or trapped, according to the annual report. Those bycatch, known as bycatch, include salmon and valuable fish, as well as marine mammals such as killer whales and seabirds. Some of the mammals and birds vulnerable to bycatch deaths have Endangered Species Act protections.
The cost of the program in 2023 was $11.7 million for full coverage, about $4.8 million for partial observer coverage, and just over $1 million for electronic tracking of vessels in the partial coverage category, according to the report. The costs are borne by the fishing industry, although the federal government covers infrastructure costs, Jennifer Ferdinand, director of fisheries monitoring and analysis at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, told the committee.
While all vessels participating in federally managed groundfish harvests are subject to observer requirements, actual coverage varies each year. In 2023, some vessels had full coverage, meaning there was always an observer or electronic monitoring system during the capture, while others had partial coverage, meaning the observer or electronic monitoring was intermittent and random. Partial coverage was limited to vessels fishing in the Gulf of Alaska, the report said.
Groundfish caught in federal waters off Alaska and subject to observer requirements include Pacific pollock and cod. Halibut harvests are also subject to these requirements.
This year, the agency is making some modifications to the observer program to collect better data in a cost-effective way, Geoff Mayhew, a biologist with the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, told the committee.
“We want to make sure we are collecting the best and most data with this budget, given that we have a limited budget and limited resources for monitoring. And so we wanted to figure out how we could get the best return on our investment,” Mayhew said.
A key difference is that this year there is observer coverage on vessels using multiple types of gear, he said. Another difference has to do with geographic spacing, which is intended to avoid sample sizes that are too small, she said.
Among the groups seeking an expansion of observer coverage is the Alaska Bycatch Review Working Group. It has recommended full coverage of electronic monitoring in Gulf of Alaska fisheries. The task force was established by Governor Mike Dunleavy in 2021.
Originally published by the Alaska Beacon, an independent, nonpartisan news organization covering Alaska state government.
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