Tribal policy experts got together Friday in anticipation of a fisheries management decision that could eventually set a limit on chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery.
Tanana Chiefs Conference (TCC) hosted the virtual meeting, with representatives from Native Peoples Action, Kawerak Inc., and Kuskokwim Intertribal Fish Commission also in attendance.
The discussion was meant to gear up stakeholders and tribal members for a February meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, which will consider a preliminary draft environmental impact statement regarding chum salmon bycatch limits. That document was released on Dec. 20.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says the Alaska pollock fishery is among the most valuable in the world, with 2023 commercial landings worth more than $520 million, according to a NOAA database.
The federal agency also estimates the federally-managed Bering Sea pollock fishery to have a “relatively low” impact on critical salmon runs for Western and Interior Alaska.
But those runs have been lackluster in recent years. And for chum salmon, Alaska Department of Fish and Game data shows species abundance from 2020 to 2023 has been below historical averages in the Yukon, Kuskokwim and Norton Sound areas.
In response to that decline, advocates ramped up calls to add a layer of protection for chums against bycatch in a bid to preserve subsistence uses and tribes’ traditional ways of life.
And Tanana Chiefs Conference Natural Resources Policy Analyst Krystal Lapp said instituting a limit would be one tangible way for fisheries managers to bolster chum runs in the face of myriad environmental challenges.
“These declines are driven by multiple pressures, including climate change, pollution, hatchery fish competition, ecosystem and habitat changes, overfishing, and disease," she said. "However, one of the most urgent and actionable issues in the bycatch of chum salmon in the federal pollock fishery – there’s currently no cap on the number of chum salmon caught as bycatch.”
NOAA data indicates reported chum bycatch in the Bering Sea can fluctuate dramatically year to year. It hit a high of nearly 711,000 chums in 2005, but dipped to about 13,000 in 2010. By 2021, that number was back up to 546,000 chums, then fell to just over 35,000 for 2024.
The federal government published a so-called “Notice of Intent” in July of 2023 to begin a formal assessment of chum salmon bycatch and management.
That was after years of advocacy, which even predates the recent decline in chum salmon runs, according to Terese Vicente, the policy and programs director for the Kuskokwim Intertribal Fish Commission.
“Tribes, and salmon people, and folks who care about salmon have been testifying and advocating for reductions in bycatch of all salmon species, including chum salmon, for many, many decades, so this isn’t something new,” she said.
Following the Notice of Intent, the Kuskokwim Intertribal Fish Commission and TCC joined on as cooperating agencies in the federal environmental review, and the National Marine Fisheries Service put out the preliminary draft of the EIS last month.
The document lists five options, which range from taking no action to implementing a hard cap of between 100,000 and 550,000 chum salmon caught as bycatch. Other options include adding hard caps corridor-by-corridor within the fishery, or adjusting caps based on chum salmon abundance.
The preliminary draft EIS is on the agenda for the upcoming North Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting, which is set to take place Feb. 6-11 in Anchorage and on Zoom.