![]() ![]() Staff contact is Sam Cunningham.Construction of wind farms will occur near and on productive scallop habitat throughout the mid-Atlantic and Southern New England, eliminating productive fishing grounds and reducing the open area available to scallop fishing. ![]() Additionally, the use of bottom trawl gear is prohibited for vessels targeting pollock in the Bering Sea, to reduce crab and halibut bycatch, and a trawl sweep modification is required for vessels participating in the Bering Sea and GOA flatfish fisheries, to raise the trawl sweep off the seafloor and reduce unobserved mortality of crab. Groundfish pots are required to have biodegradable panels and tunnel openings of a limited size to reduce incidental catch and ghost fishing from lost gear. Gillnets for groundfish are prohibited to prevent ghost fishing and bycatch of non-target species. Gear restrictions: Since the 1980s, the Council has also implemented other measures to reduce crab bycatch in groundfish fisheries. Additionally, year-round scallop closures to scallop dredging are intended to reduce bycatch of crab and to avoid and protect biologically critical areas such as nursery areas for groundfish and shellfish. Several year-round and seasonal closures exist in Bristol Bay and around the Pribilof Islands, to increase protection for adult and juvenile crab and their habitat, as well as closures around Kodiak, southeast Alaska, Cook Inlet, and inside State waters. The limits fluctuate based on annual estimates of crab abundance.Īrea closures: Area closures for trawl vessels have also been implemented throughout the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands (BSAI) and Gulf of Alaska (GOA) to protect crab. ![]() Crab bycatch limits (known as prohibited species catch limits, or PSC limits) have been established for the trawl fisheries in the BSAI to protect red king crab, Tanner crab, and snow crab. Limits on the bycatch of prohibited crab species have been established in some Bering Sea fisheries, to reduce the impacts on these species traditionally harvested by other gear types.īycatch limits: When bycatch limits are reached, fisheries responsible for the bycatch are closed for the rest of the season, or are prohibited from fishing in areas with historically high bycatch rates. Crab Bycatch Reduction Measures in the Groundfish and Scallop Fisheries ![]()
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