SR 3: Urging the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to amend the groundfish fisheries management plan for the Gulf of Alaska to allow for an annually adjusted cap of prohibited species catch based on an abundance of bycatch species, and expeditiously to implement a Chinook bycatch cap to limit the number of Chinook salmon harvested as bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska.
00 SENATE RESOLUTION NO. 3 01 Urging the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to amend the groundfish 02 fisheries management plan for the Gulf of Alaska to allow for an annually adjusted cap 03 of prohibited species catch based on an abundance of bycatch species, and expeditiously 04 to implement a Chinook bycatch cap to limit the number of Chinook salmon harvested 05 as bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska. 06 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE: 07 WHEREAS theNorth Pacific Fishery Management Council is the federal regulatory 08 body with oversight of fisheries in federal waters; and 09 WHEREAS the North Pacific Fishery Management Council currently sets a fixed cap 10 of 2,000 metric tons of halibut bycatch for a trawl fishery and 300 metric tons for a longline 11 fishery, regardless of bycatch species abundance; and 12 WHEREAS the current groundfish fishery management plan for the Gulf of Alaska 13 does not limit the number of Chinook salmon that can be taken as bycatch; and 14 WHEREAS the North Pacific Fishery Management Council has not revised the 15 groundfish fisheries management prohibited species catch plan for nearly two decades; and
01 WHEREAS Gulf of Alaska halibut populations have been steadily decreasing over 02 the past decade; and 03 WHEREAS the total allowable catch for commercial and sport halibut fishermen has 04 been adjusted to correspond with the decrease in halibut populations; and 05 WHEREAS the percentage of prohibited species caught has dramatically increased 06 relative to the total allowable catch for targeted halibut sport and commercial fisheries; and 07 WHEREAS the 2007 and 2010 Chinook salmon incidental catch rate in the Gulf of 08 Alaska reached historical highs of 40,320 and 51,258, respectively; 09 BE IT RESOLVED that the Senate urges the North Pacific Fishery Management 10 Council expeditiously to amend the Gulf of Alaska groundfish fisheries management plans to 11 allow for prohibited species catch limits based on the abundance of those species; and be it 12 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate urges the North Pacific Fishery 13 Management Council expeditiously to implement a Chinook bycatch cap to limit the number 14 of Chinook salmon harvested as bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska; and be it 15 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Senate requests the Governor to encourage his 16 appointees to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to ensure that these matters are 17 addressed by the council with the utmost expeditiousness. 18 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of 19 the United States; the Honorable Gary F. Locke, United States Secretary of Commerce; the 20 Honorable Cora Campbell, Commissioner, Department of Fish and Game; James W. Balsiger, 21 Regional Administrator, Alaska Region, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration 22 Fisheries Service; Eric Olson, Chairman, North Pacific Fishery Management Council; and the 23 Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the 24 Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.