Alaska groundfish management: is it precautionary and sustainable? Fisheries off Alaska account for around half of total U.S. harvests and are the state's No. 1 private-sector employer.

Concern is growing over the state of the world's fisheries. A suite of human activities--unsustainable fishing practices, pollution and destruction of habitat--are threatening the ocean's capacity to provide food, maintain water quality and adjust to disturbances. (1) Although fishing is just one of the human activities impacting the world's marine ecosystems, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization and U.S. National Academy of Sciences consider it the most serious. (2)

Fisheries--commercial, recreational and subsistence--are cornerstones in the Alaska economy and culture. Fisheries off Alaska account for around half of total U.S. harvests and are the state's No. 1 private-sector employer. (3) Add in the unquantifiable--the aesthetics of intact fisheries and ecosystems as a visitor attraction, and more importantly, the ecological services provided by healthy, flexible ecosystems--and the value of vibrant Alaska fisheries is even clearer. (4)

What, then, is the status of Alaska's marine fisheries? Are they being managed in a precautionary, sustainable fashion?

THE NORTH PACIFIC FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL 

While salmon are the most recognizable Alaska fish, the bulk of Alaska fisheries consist of groundfish, such as pollock, Pacific cod, Atka mackerel, and various flatfish and rockfish species. (5) These fisheries fall under federal management of the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), from 3 to 200 miles offshore.

The Fishery Conservation Act of 1976 (commonly known as the Magnuson-Stevens Act) is the primary legislation providing comprehensive federal authority in managing fisheries in the EEZ. It mandates a fishery-management framework that assigns advisory oversight for domestic fisheries to eight regional fishery management councils, under the governance of the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS). (6)

Alaskan groundfish fisheries fall under the management of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC). This council is comprised of delegates with working knowledge of Alaska's fisheries and marine ecosystems, representing commercial and recreational user groups, state and federal agencies, and the public. The delegates serve as a democratic decision-making body that is advised by fishery scientists, user groups and environmental organizations. The council members and advisors work together to develop fishery management plans (FMPs) and regulations for the fisheries. Their suggested plans and regulations are sent to the U.S. Secretary of Commerce for approval. The secretary has the final authority in approving or denying the recommendations, however, that authority is usually delegated to NMFS. (7)

HOW ALASKA GROUNDFISH FISHERIES MANAGEMENT WORKS

Representatives of NMFS and the council assert that Alaska's groundfish fisheries remain relatively healthy as a result of well thought out science and strict annual catch limits. (8) Each target stock is assigned three harvest levels: the Over-Fishing Level (OFL), the Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC), and the Total Allowable Catch (TAC). The OFL defines the unacceptable, unsustainable harvest. The ABC defines the acceptable degree of harvest from a biological perspective. The TAC is essentially the annual catch limit for the fishery, and is set at, or below, the ABC and includes social and economic considerations. Finally, the catch of all species combined is limited by an additional overall "optimum yield" cap which offers additional precautionary insulation. (9)

Many factors temper the NPFMC's deliberations in setting its annual catch limits, but science weighs in heavily. In the 30 years since the Fisheries Conservation Act was initiated, the North Pacific Council has never set a catch limit exceeding the recommendations of its Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC), which is comprised of more than a dozen prominent fisheries and marine scientists. (10,11)

Their decisions consider natural mortality of target fish caused by predation from marine mammals, seabirds and other fish species, and factor this information into the annual stock assessment analysis by which individual species annual catch limits are based. (12) Decisions are further informed by an ecosystem considerations report that supplements the annual stock assessment and fishery-evaluation report. This chapter provides an annual assessment of the ecosystem, a review of literature in the discipline of ecosystem-based management, updates regarding ongoing research, local observations from coastal dwellers and fishermen, and any new information concerning the status of habitat, marine mammals, seabirds or other components in the North Pacific ecosystem. (13)

The catch limits and bycatch limits themselves are strictly adhered to, as in-season management of these fisheries is based on information from onboard NMFS observers (100 percent coverage on vessels greater than 125 feet, and 30 percent coverage on vessels greater than 60 feet). Catch reporting is electronically communicated in real-time and administered by NMFS. Both retained and discarded catch counts toward the annual limit, and when those limits are reached, the fisheries are closed. (14)

ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

After 30 years of sustained annual harvests of approximately 2 million tons, a recent NMFS evaluation contends that all groundfish stocks are relatively healthy. No finfish stocks are considered over-fished, or are subject to over-fishing. (15,16)

Some observers, however, challenge the NPFMC's success claims. Major allegations are: 1) Conflict of interest prevents an adequately precautionary approach, as industry representative hold a majority (6 members) on the 11-person council; 2) NMFS annual trawl and acoustical assessments to the contrary, the over-fished status of many of the major stocks in the region is unknown, including some stocks that support the enormous pollock fishery; 3) The council failed to counter the decline of the valuable king and tanner crab fisheries in the 1980s; 4) Bycatch in the North Pacific fisheries is unacceptable, with wasteful discard of several million pounds of untargeted fish each year; 5) Trawling in Aleutian Island habitat is decimating the region's cold-water coral populations, while the council purposes to gather more information before acting; 6) The council's management of the fishery and its effect on Steller sea lion populations is inadequate in protecting the marine mammals; and lastly, 7) There is growing concern that climate variation combined with unremitting fishing pressure will have a detrimental effect on the regions' marine fish populations, and that the council is not acting to make precautionary adjustments accordingly.

CONFLICT OF INTEREST

The NPFMC is as an 11-member council. Four represent government agencies, while the remaining seven members are appointed: one represents recreational interests and six represent fishing industry interests. Prior to voting on an issue, council members submit conflict-of-interest forms, which are reviewed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's General Counsel. Members considered to have a conflict are prohibited from voting on that issue. (17)

The council is democratic, where those who are affected by actions have a say in decision-making. This intent was designed within the original Magnuson-Stevens Act.

OVERFISHING 

According to NMFS, none of the region's groundfish stocks are considered overfished (depleted to low biomass levels), or undergoing overfishing (where harvest rate exceeds sustainable rates). (18,19) There are two crabs stocks that NMFS considers depleted: the Pribilof Islands blue king crab, and the St. Matthew Island blue king crab stock. The council maintains that these two stocks are at low biomass levels because of sequential years of very small year-classes being produced--a condition completely unrelated to fishing, as these stocks are under the protective umbrella of managed protection areas and have not been subject to fishing for some time. (20) However, impacts of trawling of juvenile crab habitat could be an as yet un-quantified factor.

BYCATCH

Fish that are captured incidentally to target fisheries are considered bycatch. Bycatch is managed by gear restrictions and other regulatory measures governing what fish are kept, and how they are used, in all target fisheries. Bycatch of traditional high-valued species (halibut, crabs, salmon, herring) is strictly limited, and attainment of these bycatch limits triggers area closures or even ends fishing altogether for the remainder of the season.

Other fish species that are unmarketable (e.g. sculpins), or are uneconomical to process, are discarded unless prohibited by regulation. Currently, 100 percent retention of pollock and pacific cod is required, regardless of how and where it was caught. Changing industry practices, as well as other measures such as gear requirements, have greatly reduced the overall bycatch and discard of unwanted fish. For example, the overall discard rates for groundfish in the Bering Sea is approximately 7 percent. In comparable fisheries worldwide, discard approximates 20 percent of the catch. (21)

MARINE PROTECTED AREAS 

More than 40 informal Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have been established in federal and state waters off Alaska. Most prohibit particular fisheries or gear type, on either a seasonal or year-round basis. A few prohibit virtually all commercial fishing. Nearly 400,000 square nautical miles (nm) of ocean bottom has been designated as informal MPAs to protect the marine ecosystem from potential fishing impacts (22) (though some portion of this number is over deep water that is seldom fished). Specifically, the MPA's missions include protecting ecological structure and function; providing control sites for scientific research studies; conserve bottom habitat; protecting unique habitat, such as coral and sponge gardens; protecting vulnerable stocks; and protecting cultural resources. (23) Most of the MPAs achieve multiple objectives. In total, they are a critical component to manager's efforts at maintaining sustainable fisheries and conserving marine biodiversity in Alaska waters. (24)

STELLAR SEA LIONS

Between 1970 and 2000, western populations of Steller sea lions declined approximately 80 percent. Multiple factors are thought to have played a role in this decline, including incidental takes and competitive interactions with fisheries. (25) Over the last 30 years, various management and regulatory measures have been enacted to help reverse the decline. From a fishery management standpoint, this currently includes gear, fishery and area-specific restrictions. Full or partial closures are in place for over 58,000 nm2 of the ocean, along with additional protected area measures throughout the Aleutian Islands and the Gulf of Alaska. The MPAs include no-transit zones within 3 nautical miles of 37 rookeries within the Gulf of Alaska (with the exception of Southeast) and the Aleutian Islands. (26) While counts increased from 2000 to 2004, NMFS has yet to conclude that Stellar sea lions are on the road to recovery. (27)

CLIMATE CHANGE

The northern Bering Sea is changing from an Arctic to sub-Arctic conditions. As a result, the pelagic-fish dominated marine ecosystem previously limited to the southeastern Bering Sea is shifting north. It is replacing what was predominantly an ice-impacted, shallow ecosystem favoring benthic communities and bottom-feeding marine mammals and sea ducks. This shift may affect subsistence and commercial fishing in the future, as commercial fish stocks begin to utilize these northern habitats. (28)

In response, the council is working on a fishery management plan for the Arctic. This includes developing management strategies necessary to control any future development of fisheries in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. (29)

MOVING TOWARD THE FUTURE: PRECAUTIONARY, ECOSYSTEM-BASED FISHERIES MANAGEMENT

The NPFMC defines ecosystem-based management as "a strategy to regulate human activity toward maintaining long-term system sustainability (within the natural variability as we understand it) of the North Pacific." (30)

Ecosystem-based management requires developing a perspective that "acknowledges and understands that 1) our knowledge has limits; 2) marine ecosystems are inherently unpredictable; 3) ecosystems have functional and evolutionary limits that constrain exploitation; 4) there is an fundamental trade-off in fishing, where fish for human consumption must be balanced with fish for the rest of the ecosystem; and 5) ecosystems are complex, dynamic, adaptive systems." (31)

Viewed in total, the NPFMC approach appears true to these considerations. Theirs is an evolving precautionary approach that is constantly improving as better science becomes available. It currently consists of public participation through the council comment process, reliance on scientific research and enforcement, conservative Total Allowable Catches (TACs), comprehensive observer coverage and real-time data reporting, bycatch controls, restrictions on gear, temporal and spatial distribution of fisheries, substantial Marine Protected Areas, and efforts to minimize impacts on seafloor habitat, seabirds and marine mammals.

CONCLUSION

Is the North Pacific Council's management of Alaska's groundfish perfect? No. But their efforts consistently improve, despite being faced by a daunting fact: even perfectly pristine ecosystems exhibit combinations of stability and instability, with unexpected behavioral shifts resulting from both internal and external causes. In an ecosystem managed for the production of food, this is especially true. Data is sometimes inadequate, process knowledge incomplete, and the very act of managing changes the system being managed. Changes, potentially even surprises, are inevitable. (32) The NPFMC's evolving precautionary approach appears to be a responsible strategy for dealing with such uncertainty.

The council's approach has been validated in the last several years in a number of ways. First, the Pew Ocean Commission Report, an independent national fisheries management review published in 2003, praised the NPFMC for its conservative approach to fisheries management, particularly its extensive use of observers and its conservative TACs. (33,34) And the recent reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act earlier this year--which governs all the national councils--included a number of provisions modeled after the NPFMC. Three modifications in particular were 1) giving greater attention to the structure of the scientific and statistical committees and how those bodies are used for independent assessment of the science underlying fisheries quotas; 2) establishing annual catch limits whose determination is based on better science; and 3) improving accountability on how those catch limits are monitored. (35)

Historically, many social groups have overcome the threats of resource degradation, by developing and maintaining self governance. (36) The relatively healthy state of the North Pacific groundfish fisheries, the NPFMC's influence on the reauthorized Magnuson-Stevens Act, and the approval offered by the independent Pew Oceans Commission, suggests the NPFMC is governing the North Pacific fisheries fairly well. Even more important is the fact that the council seems infused with a conservative, science-based culture vital to maintaining sustainable fisheries-and other fisheries managers are noticing.

RESOURCES

(1) Worm, B., E.B. Barbier, N. Beaumont, J. E. Duffy, C. Folke, B.S. Halpern, J.B.C. Jackson, H.K. Lotze, F. Micheli, S.R. Palumbi, E. Sala, K.A. Selkoe, J.J. Stachowicz, and R. Watson. (2006). Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services. Science 314, November 3. 787-790.

(2) Safina, C. (1995). The World's Imperiled Fish. Scientific American, November, 46-53.

(3) Madsen, S. (2006). Alaska's Groundfish Fisheries: A National Model for Sustainability for More Than 30 Years. Alaska Business Monthly, December.

(4) Hawken, P. (1994). The Ecology of Commerce. New York: Collins.

(5) Madsen, S. (2006). Alaska's Groundfish Fisheries: A National Model for Sustainability for More Than 30 Years. Alaska Business Monthly, December.

(6) Pew Oceans Commission. (2003). Managing Marine Fisheries in the United States. Proceedings of the Pew Commission Scientific Workshop on Marine Fishery Management. Washington D.C.: Island Press.

(7) Pew Oceans Commission. (2003). Managing Marine Fisheries in the United States. Proceedings of the Pew Commission Scientific Workshop on Marine Fishery Management. Washington D.C.: Island Press.

(8) Salveson, S. National Marine Fisheries Service, North Pacific Fishery Management Council. (Personal Communication)

(9) Madsen, S. (2006). Alaska's Groundfish Fisheries: A National Model for Sustainability for More Than 30 Years. Alaska Business Monthly, December.

(10) Salveson, S. National Marine Fisheries Service, North Pacific Fishery Management Council. (Personal Communication)

(11) NPFMC. (2002). Responsible Fisheries Management into the 21st Century. North Pacific Fishery Management Council, Anchorage. 23 p.

(12) NPFMC. (2002). Responsible Fisheries Management into the 21st Century. North Pacific Fishery Management Council, Anchorage. 23 p.

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(14) Madsen, S. (2006). Alaska's Groundfish Fisheries: A National Model for Sustainability for More Than 30 Years. Alaska Business Monthly, December.

(15) Salveson, S. National Marine Fisheries Service, North Pacific Fishery Management Council. (Personal Communication)

(16) NPFMC. (2002). Responsible Fisheries Management into the 21st Century. North Pacific Fishery Management Council, Anchorage. 23 p.

(17) Witherell, D. North Pacific Fishery Management Council. (Personal Communication)

(18) NPFMC. (2002). Responsible Fisheries Management into the 21st Century. North Pacific Fishery Management Council, Anchorage. 23 p.

(19) Eagle, J., S. Newkirk and B.H. Thompson, Jr. (2003). Taking Stock of the Regional Fishery Management Councils. Pew Ocean Science Series.

(20) Witherell, D., C. Pautzke, and D. Fluharty. (2000). An ecosystem-based approach for Alaska groundfish fisheries. ICES Journal of Marine Science 57, 771-777.

(21) Madsen, S. (2006). Alaska's Groundfish Fisheries: A National Model for Sustainability for More Than 30 Years. Alaska Business Monthly, December.

(22) Madsen, S. (2006). Alaska's Groundfish Fisheries: A National Model for Sustainability for More Than 30 Years. Alaska Business Monthly, December.

(23) Witherell, D., C. Pautzke, and D. Fluharty. (2000). An ecosystem-based approach for Alaska groundfish fisheries. ICES Journal of Marine Science 57, 771-777.

(24) Worm, B., E.B. Barbier, N. Beaumont, J. E. Duffy, C. Folke, B.S. Halpern, J.B.C. Jackson, H.K. Lotze, F. Micheli, S.R. Palumbi, E. Sala, K.A. Selkoe, J.J. Stachowicz, and R. Watson. (2006). Impacts of Biodiversity Loss on Ocean Ecosystem Services. Science 314, November 3. 787-790.

(25) Fritz, L. National Marine Fisheries Service. (Personal Communication.)

(26) Witherell, D., and D. Woodby. (2006). Application of Marine Protected Areas for Sustainable Production and Marine Biodiversity off Alaska. Marine Fisheries Review 67, 1-27

(27) Fritz, L. National Marine Fisheries Service. (Personal Communication.)

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(29) Salveson, S. National Marine Fisheries Service, North Pacific Fishery Management Council. (Personal Communication)

(30) Witherell, D., C. Pautzke, and D. Fluharty. (2000). An ecosystem-based approach for Alaska groundfish fisheries. ICES Journal of Marine Science 57, 771-777.

(31) Pew Oceans Commission. (2003). Managing Marine Fisheries in the United States. Proceedings of the Pew Commission Scientific Workshop on Marine Fishery Management. Washington D.C.: Island Press.

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(33) Pew Oceans Commission. (2003). Managing Marine Fisheries in the United States. Proceedings of the Pew Commission Scientific Workshop on Marine Fishery Management. Washington D.C.: Island Press.

(34) Eagle, J., S. Newkirk and B.H. Thompson, Jr. (2003). Taking Stock of the Regional Fishery Management Councils. Pew Ocean Science Series. Washington D.C.: Island Press.

(35) Salveson, S. National Marine Fisheries Service, North Pacific Fishery Management Council. (Personal Communication)

(36) Kennedy, D. (2006). Science Magazine's State of the Planet, 2006-2007. Washington D.C.: Island Press.

(25) Fritz, L. National Marine Fisheries Service. (Personal Communication.)

John Pohl is a 39-year resident of Alaska. He has a Bachelor of Science degree in biological oceanography from Humboldt State University in California, and has been on or near the water vmost of his adult life. He's worked as a deckhand on tall ships in Washington, a boat handler for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Prince William Sound, and a NMFS observer in the Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea. He is currently on sabbatical from his position as an oceanographer at NOAA's Auke Bay Marine Lab in Juneau.