Fisheries scientists are preliminary recommending a lower Allowable Biological Catch (ABC) limit for Alaska pollock in the Bering Sea Aleutian Island area at this week’s meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) in Anchorage.

But there is more work to be done before any ABC or total allowable catch (TAC) figures are set for the approaching season.

In documents released as part of the meeting, the proposed Eastern Bering Sea pollock ABC recommendation is 2,467,000 metric tons, a nearly 5 percent decrease from the 2018 ABC of 2,592,000 metric tons, according to the council's BSAI Plan Team Proposed ABC recommendations.