All bycatch data from federally managed pollock trawl and groundfish fisheries in the state are now available in one place. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game recently launched a bycatch portal on its website years after it was recommended by the governor’s bycatch task force at the end of 2022.
According to the department’s website, this portal aims to, “provide transparent access to data, research and management actions related to bycatch in Alaska’s fisheries.”
The portal includes data from fisheries that are managed by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the International Pacific Halibut Commission.
So far this year, the pollock trawl and groundfish fisheries in the Bering Sea and Aleutians Islands, and in the Gulf of Alaska, have caught 6,793 salmon according to the bycatch portal. That total includes both Chinook and non-Chinook species as of July 4.
The state’s bycatch portal is one of dozens of recommendations that the Alaska Bycatch Review Task Force included in its final report from December of 2022. Since then, an advisory council, formed by ADF&G Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang, has been working to implement some of the task force’s measures.
But after setting up the bycatch portal, the Alaska Bycatch Advisory Council held what is likely its final meeting on May 4. Based on the commissioner’s order that created the council, the group is slated to sunset in December and the council has not scheduled any future meetings for this year.
More information about bycatch in Alaska fisheries, including the latest numbers of salmon, halibut and other bycaught species, can be found online at ADF&G’s website.
