The Alaska pollock “A” season, which kicked off Jan. 20 with a 1.345 million-metric-ton quota, started off on a disappointing note for US harvesters, with a trifecta of smaller fish, low roe yields and – most worryingly – high chinook salmon bycatch.
Some 6 percent of the overall bycatch allocation for 2017 had been caught in just the first week of fishing. This matters – a lot – because caps on the bycatch of Chinook salmon put in place by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC), if reached, can lead to shutdowns of the fishery in the most extreme case.
“We’re
