SEATTLE, Washington, February 6, 2009 (ENS) – The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted unanimously Thursday to prohibit all commercial fishing activity in U.S. waters north of the Bering Strait and east to the Canadian border.

If approved by the Secretary of Commerce, this precautionary approach would close roughly 150,000 square nautical mile Arctic Management Area to commercial fishing, and is intended to provide an opportunity to assess the impacts of climate change on Arctic ecosystems before any commercial fishing is allowed.

The council has already closed an additional 527,110 square nautical miles off Alaska. In total, the area closed to protect fish habitat would cover an area more than five times larger than the entire U.S. National Park System.

To date, no large-scale commercial fishing occurs in the Arctic, and large fish populations do not show up on the few surveys conducted there, but global warming is melting the Arctic sea ice for longer periods each year, potentially enticing cold water fish further north than in the past.

Meeting in Seattle, the 15 member council represents government and industry fisheries experts from Alaska, Washington and Oregon and the U.S. government.

The council’s action today concludes a nearly two year process of deciding what action to take while a management plan is developed for the waters north of Bering Strait.

Spring ice pack on the Chukchi Sea north of the Bering Strait (Photo courtesy NOAA)

The Marine Conservation Alliance, a Juneau-based association of fishermen, processors and communities involved in the groundfish and crab fisheries off Alaska, said it fully supports the council’s action to close all commercial fishing in waters north of the Bering Strait until a management plan is fully developed.

“Climate change is having a significant effect on the Arctic, opening previously ice-covered waters and drawing cold water species further north,” said MCA executive director Dave Benton.

A resolution passed by the U.S. Senate last year supported a halt to commercial fishing in the Arctic until agreement is reached on managing migratory, transboundary and straddling stocks among all nations bordering the Arctic, including the United States, Canada, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Russia, and the European Union.

Benton said, “The Council’s action to close these waters as a precautionary measure gives us the opportunity to conduct the scientific review necessary to develop a plan for how sustainable fisheries might be conducted in the Arctic in the future,” he said. “Hopefully a similar precautionary approach will be adopted by other nations that border the Arctic.”

The council says it will maintain a continuing review of the environment in the Arctic Management Area and will periodically review the provisions of the Fisheries Management Plan that implements the closure.

The council plans to maintain “close liaison” with the management agencies involved, particularly the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and National Marine Fisheries Service, but also including regional resource management entities in the Arctic Management Area such as the Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission, the Eskimo Walrus Commission, and the North Slope and Northwest Arctic Boroughs, to monitor the development of commercial fishery potential.

The council will promote research to increase knowledge of the marine environment and fishery resources of the Arctic Management Area, including birds and marine mammals, either through council funding or by recommending research projects to other agencies.

The council says it is “particularly interested in research that improves understanding of the Arctic ecosystem, predator-prey relationships, energy flow, and how climate warming affects these processes.”

Also planned are public hearings and outreach to Arctic natives and communities to hear testimony on the ecological relationships in the Arctic Management Area and the potential for commercial fishery development and management.

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SEATTLE, Washington, April 10, 2008 (ENS) – The Pacific Fishery Management Council today closed the commercial and sport chinook fisheries off the coast of California and most of Oregon and will allow only a 9,000 fishery for hatchery coho only off of Central Oregon.

The council adopted the most restrictive salmon fishing quotes in the history of the West Coast in response to the unprecedented collapse of the Sacramento River fall chinook salmon population and the exceptionally poor status of coho salmon from Oregon and Washington.

The recommendation will be forwarded to the National Marine Fisheries Service for approval by May 1, 2008.

“This is a disaster for West Coast salmon fisheries, under any standard,” said council chairman Don Hansen. “There will be a huge impact on the people who fish for a living, those who eat wild-caught king salmon, those who enjoy recreational fishing, and the businesses and coastal communities dependent on these fisheries.”

The council said in a statement that while it cannot explain why the fish are not returning, it is clear that overfishing did not cause the depressed condition, as the parent spawning populations were all above their escapement goal.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has suggested ocean temperature changes, and a resulting lack of upwelling, as a possible cause of the sudden decline.

Many biologists believe a combination of human-caused and natural factors will ultimately explain the collapse, including both marine conditions and freshwater factors such as in-stream water withdrawals, habitat alterations, dam operations, construction, pollution, and changes in hatchery operations.

The Council has requested a multi-agency task force led by the National Marine Fisheries Service’s West Coast Science Centers to research about 50 potential causative factors and report back to the Council at the September meeting in Boise, Idaho.

The Sacramento River fall chinook stock is the driver of commercial and recreational salmon fisheries off California and most of Oregon, the council says.

“The reason for the sudden decline of Sacramento River fish is a mystery at this time,” said Council Executive Director Don McIsaac. “The only thing that can be done in the short term is to cut back the commercial and recreational fishing seasons to protect the remaining fish.”

Small tributaries of the Sacramento River
like this one are supposedly good salmon
rearing habitat, but few salmon are
expected there this year.
(Photo courtesy USFWS)

“The longer-term solution will involve a wide variety of people, agencies, and organizations,” said McIsaac. “But for now, unfortunately, those involved in the salmon fisheries are paying the price.”

Salmon fisheries off California and Oregon typically have been large – involving seasons from May 1 to October 31 and average over 800,000 chinook caught per year from 2000 to 2005.

But this year, although chinook quotas in the area north of Cape Falcon in northern Oregon are similar to 2007 and chinook stocks are generally more abundant, depressed natural coho stocks are constraining access of commercial fisheries to the chinook salmon, the council said.

Sport fisheries, many of which depend on coho salmon, are even more restricted. Coho quotas are less than 20 percent of the 2007 season for non-Indian fisheries and about 50 percent of 2007 levels for treaty-Indian fisheries.

The closures south of Cape Falcon are due to a sudden, unprecedented decline in the number of Sacramento River fall chinook returning to the river this year.

The minimum conservation goal for Sacramento fall chinook is 122,000 – 180,000 spawning adult salmon, the number needed to return to the river to maintain the health of the run.

As recently as 2002, adult salmon numbering about 775,000 returned to spawn.

This year, even with all ocean salmon fishing closures, the return of fall run chinook to the Sacramento is projected to be only 54,000.

“The salmon fishing culture that has been a cornerstone of the coastal communities has reached a low ebb point in 2008 for the collective three West Coast states,” said Mark Cedergreen, council vice chairman. “This was the responsible thing to do, but it will hurt.”

In California and Oregon south of Cape Falcon, where Sacramento fish stocks have the biggest impact, the commercial and recreational salmon fishery had an average economic value of $103 million per year between 1979 and 2004.

The record low seasons are devastating news to beleaguered salmon fleets on the west coast. California and Oregon ocean salmon fisheries are still recovering from a poor fishing season in 2005 and a disastrous one in 2006, when Klamath River fall chinook returns were below their spawning escapement goal.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is online at: www.pcouncil.org

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