The commercial allocation for Pacific hake, or whiting, will be set lower for the 2021 season, with the proposed harvest guideline down around nearly 13 percent from last year.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is proposing the US commercial harvest across the catcher-processor, mothership co-op and shore-based individual fishing quota (IFQ) programs be set at 304,005 metric tons.
The US allocation would be set at 369,400 metric tons for the season, also down 13 percent from last year. However, a final decision on the quota has not yet been determined, according to NOAA.
This is the second year in a row the Pacific whiting treaty’s Joint Management Committee (JMC), which recommends the full coastwide total allowable catch (TAC) for both the US and Canada, did not reach an agreement. Last year, the countries also failed to reach an agreement and the US whiting fishery began the season operating under interim allocations until the final TAC was determined.
The agreement allocates 73.88 percent of the Pacific whiting TAC to the United States and 26.12 percent to Canada.
In 2020, the coastwide TAC was set at 575,000 metric tons, with the United States allocated 424,810 metric tons.
The 2021 proposed harvest guideline of 304,005 metric tons break down among the sector as:
- Catcher/processor co-op program: 103,362 metric tons
- Mothership coop program: 72,961 metric tons
- Shorebased IFQ program: 127,682 metric tons
NOAA has issued interim allocations for the US commercial sectors based on the lowest coastwide TAC for the United States and Canada of 475,000 metric tons that was considered in the proposed rule.
The final rule will establish the final 2021 US TAC, tribal allocation, research and incidental catch set-asides, and non-tribal harvest guideline for the commercial sectors.
The fishery, scheduled to open May 15, will begin while operating under the interim allocations.
There are five major seafood companies operating in the fishery that include American Seafoods, Arctic Storm, Glacier Fish, Aleutian Spray Fisheries and Trident Seafoods.
