The Council took final action on Cook Inlet salmon by selecting Alternative 4 – Federal management with the Cook Inlet EEZ closed to commercial salmon fishing, as its preferred alternative. Following Secretarial approval, the Council’s action will amend the Salmon FMP by removing an exclusion from federal management that applies to a portion of Cook… Read More →
Cook Inlet Salmon
The Council conducted its initial review of an analysis of alternative approaches to extend the authority of the Salmon FMP to include management of commercial salmon fishing in the Cook Inlet EEZ. The Council’s SSC reviewed the technical merits of the analysis and approved it for use by the Council for selecting a preferred alternative.… Read More →
Cook Inlet Salmon
The SSC, AP, and Council reviewed a preliminary draft of the environmental assessment and regulatory impact analysis (EA/RIR) that is being prepared to analyze the impacts of managing the salmon driftnet fishery in federal waters of Cook Inlet through the Council’s Salmon FMP. The Council also reviewed reports from the final meetings of the Cook… Read More →
Cook Inlet Salmon
The Council heard from the Cook Inlet Salmon Committee on progress with recommendations on the Salmon FMP amendment under development. The Cook Inlet Salmon Committee was created to involve salmon stakeholders in the development of an FMP amendment that will extend federal management authority to salmon fisheries in EEZ waters of Cook Inlet. Under Alternative… Read More →
Salmon Bycatch
The Council received a number of reports related to BSAI and GOA salmon bycatch including the EBS pollock fishery incentive plan agreement (IPA) reports, an update from the SeaShare food donation program, genetic stock of origin reports for chum and Chinook in both the GOA and BSAI and a summary of a NPFMC-sponsored workshop on… Read More →
Cook Inlet Salmon
The Council reviewed the Cook Inlet Salmon Committee’s progress on developing recommendations for an amendment to extend federal management to Cook Inlet salmon fisheries that operate in the EEZ and provided direction for their further work. The Council also received a report from the SSC about their review of status determination criteria for the Cook… Read More →
Salmon Excluder EFP
The Council received a final report on the exempted fishing permit for testing salmon excluder devices in the EBS pollock fisheries. The excluder tested in this EFP employs an ‘over and under” (O/U) design that achieved successful escapement (33-54%) in the GOA pollock fishery during previous trials. Three vessels were used and testing spanned the… Read More →