GOA Trawl Sweeps modification Discussion Paper

• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: Bering Sea; Gulf of Alaska; Pacific; Alaska; Tanner crab
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.232.2577; http://209.112.168.2/npfmc/PDFdocuments/bycatch/GOATrawlSweeps211.pdf

In October 2010, the Council initiated a trailing amendment to require trawl sweep modifications on nonpelagic trawl vessels fishing in the Central Gulf of Alaska (GOA). The action was initiated in conjunction with final action on the GOA Tanner crab bycatch measures. A similar gear modification, which requires elevating devices to be placed on the trawl sweeps to lift the sweep off the seafloor, was implemented beginning in 2011 for flatfish vessels in the Bering Sea. Bering Sea research has demonstrated that elevated sweeps can reduce unobserved mortality of crab from interacting with the trawl sweeps. Unlike the modification required to the Bering Sea (BS) trawl sweeps, however, which is required only in the directed flatfish fisheries, the proposed trawl sweep modification for the Central GOA would apply to all non-pelagic trawl fisheries (e.g., flatfish, Pacific cod, pollock, and rockfish). These other target fisheries were not included in the BS trawl sweep modification amendment, and the BS analysis did not address whether sweep modifications would work effectively for other target fisheries. The Council spent time during the October Council meeting debating the merits of whether the trawl sweep modification should apply to all trawl target fisheries, and whether it should be required GOA wide, or be limited to only the Central GOA. By including the western GOA trawl fleet in this proposed amendment, the Council was concerned that they could be requiring a gear modification for a fleet of largely small