Alaska Trawl Season Closed Due to Chinook Bycatch

The pollock trawling fleet operating in the Gulf of Alaska has been shut down early due to an alarming number of chinook salmon showing up as bycatch. According to SalmonState, a nonprofit conservation group, two “midwater” pollock trawl boats accidentally netted 2,000 chinook salmon in one day, which brought the “estimated season total of chinook bycatch to near or over their allowable number.”

Essentially, trawlers are allowed to catch a certain number of chinook salmon each year as they trawl for pollock. Any fish that isn’t pollock is considered “bycatch” and must be thrown back (although fish brought in as bycatch are often dead). This bycatch number has been at the center of fierce debate, especially as chinook salmon numbers continue to plummet, effecting a myriad of other marine and freshwater species.

The trawling community has come under fire recently from commercial crab fishermen to recreational anglers alike. Trawlers are often accused of having a negative impact on fishery and ecosystem health through their methods of catching fish, which is suspending nets and dragging them along behind the boat.

According to SalmonState, “While pelagic or midwater gear is supposed to be off the seafloor, recent studies found that trawl nets contact the bottom on average 40% to 80% of the time, with rates up to 100% on factory ships, also called catcher/processors.” The trawlers who caught the chinook and forced the closure of the pollock season were using midwater trawling gear.

SalmonState also published 2024’s current bycatch numbers in both the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea, which stands at:

• 34,017 Chinook salmon
• 44,843 Chum salmon
• 818,476 crabs
• 3.8 million pounds of halibut
• 3 million pounds of herring

“Federal trawl fisheries catching Chinook in Alaska’s waters have had a detrimental impact on our communities and the families that rely upon a healthy ecosystem to practice a way of life that remains central to who we are as Indigenous Peoples. The inequities in policy that allow bycatch of Chinook in Alaska waters while Tribes have limited or no access is unacceptable,” said Craig Chythlook, Fisheries Policy Director for Native Peoples Action.