**CORRECTION MADE TO BERING SEA TRAWL HALIBUT NUMBERS

Pollock catch boosted by nearly 6%; trawl bycatch of snow crab tripled

Bering Sea fishermen will enjoy a larger pollock catch for the next two years.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) this week gave the nod to a 1.375 million metric ton pollock harvest for 2025 and 2026. That is a 5.8% increase over the 2024 catch and equates to more than three Billion pounds of Alaska pollock.

Bycatch decreased slightly for Bering Sea halibut; tripled for snow crab

The Council set the halibut bycatch level for Bering Sea trawlers to 2,369 metric tons, or 5,211,800 pounds. That was lower than the 2,535 metric tons (5,577,000 pounds) its scientific staff had recommended at the October meeting. The lower halibut bycatch rate is due to the new limits placed on the Seattle-based Amendment 80 bottom trawl fleet.

The NPFMC tripled trawl snow crab bycatch trawl bycatch to 12,850,000 animals. That is an increase from 4,350,000 snow crabs in 2024.

The Bering Sea snow crab fishery was closed in 2022 due to a collapse of the stock and the NPFMC was required to create a 10 year rebuilding plan to comply with federal fisheries laws. The plan had to be in place prior to the start of the 2023/2024 fishing season for groundfish in Alaska waters.

The impacts of bycatch on the snow crab stock are not considered in the rebuilding plan. The analysis states that “…fishing mortality is not the primary driver of the current snow crab population status…” Therefore, restrictions on human activities that directly result in crab mortality, whether directed fishing or bycatch, are considered effectively useless in the rebuilding of the stock.”

Gulf of AK gets reduced pollock, cod catches; trawl halibut bycatch ok’d at nearly 4 million pounds

Gulf of Alaska state water cod catches and halibut bycatch limits

GOA halibut bycatch = 3,751,000 pounds plus 5,211,800 pounds at Bering Sea. Comparison to directed halibut catches —