Western Gulf of Alaska Fishermen’s Data Portal

Partners: Aleutians East Borough, Chordata LLC, Peninsula Fishermen’s Coalition, Saltwater Inc.

Bycatch of Chinook salmon in the Gulf of Alaska pollock trawl fishery is closely monitored and limited under a hard cap that, if met, can trigger closure of the fishery. Industry is working with the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and NMFS to use electronic monitoring to improve the precision of catch estimates and to reduce and avoid salmon bycatch. In the Western Gulf of Alaska the Aleutians East Borough, Chordata LLC, the Peninsula Fishermen’s Coalition, and Saltwater Inc. collaborated to install electronic monitoring systems on vessels and create a data collection program including processors. In the first year of operations, this combined network of trained fishery partners and technology was able to improve the speed and accuracy of catch reporting. The industry data portal offered rapid notifications to the fleet of bycatch events, allowing captains to modify their fishing in real time. The data portal is already able to share information directly with NMFS, and in the future it could become the primary repository of catch data across business and the agency. 

Read more at EM4Fish: Projects in the Field