Bristol Bay Red King Crab Quota Same as Last Year; Bairdi Crab TAC Up 30%
The ADF&G has set Bristol Bay’s red king crab quota for the 2015 season at 9.974 million pounds, just a marginal decline from the 9.986 million pound TAC set last year. Meanwhile, the Bering Sea bairdi crab quota is up 30 percent to nearly 20 million pounds. Both of these fisheries, in addition to the Saint Matthew Island blue king crab fishery, will open on October 15. The Bering Sea opilio crab TAC and season announcements from the ADF&G are expected shortly.
Angry fishermen walked out of a meeting of the New England Fisheries Management Council this week, furious with how the region’s managers have handled severe cuts to the groundfish catch over the last five years. The Council was meeting to take public comments on the Fleet Diversity Amendment, A18. However, fishermen protested during meeting, saying they have had it with the current management regime and want to start over. “The problem is not a lack of ownership, but rather a dysfunctional management system and one-size-fits all policies that ignore scale of fishing and ecosystems and marginalize ecologically-minded fishermen,” said Brett Tolley of the North Atlantic Marine Alliance.
In other news prices for Alaskan halibut IFQs have gone through the roof under an anticipation that catches could be increased for the second straight year. Halibut dock prices as high as $7 per pound combined with limited quota for sale on the market have contributed to pricey IFQs.
John Sackton reports from Vigo, Spain where the Conexmar Exhibition has just wrapped up after a busy show. A Seafood Congress will get underway tomorrow and Friday to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the FAO Code of Responsible Fishing. Speakers will discuss the current status of fisheries resources, production and world exports by product type, consumption, IUU fishing and issues regarding sustainability. The Global Seafood Sustainable Initiative will also premiere its Global Benchmark Tool during the Congress.
Finally, Royal Greenland and Polar Seafood have backed a 12.5 percent increase to next year’s coldwater shrimp catch in West Greenland. Support for more quota follows a stock survey that found the fishery to be in recovery after spending a decade in decline. "The increase from 2015 to 2016 will thus be less than the quota reduction that occurred from 2014 to 2015 – a quota reduction that, in accordance with the biological advice, was introduced precisely to protect cold-water prawns from overfishing, and which has apparently already resulted in the first signs of healthy growth in the North Atlantic stock,” the company said in a joint statement.
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