From mobile closures to individual incentives: Chinook salmon bycatch reduction efforts in the Bering Sea pollock fishery

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Bycatch is repeatedly noted as a primary problem in fisheries management and as the foremost negative impact of commercial fishing. In the Bering Sea pollock fishery, salmon bycatch reduction measures have included gear modifications but have principally consisted of area closures. Bycatch levels of chum and Chinook salmon have risen substantially since the beginning of the decade and significant areas of the pollock fishery have been closed at some points between 2002 and 2007. These closures have consisted of both large long-term Salmon Savings Area closures and short-term voluntary rolling hotspot (VRHS) closures. More recently, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council has acted to impose a hard cap on the pollock fishery which would close the fishery if it were reached. In this paper, we consider the effectiveness of different management actions taken to manage salmon bycatch. We examine the effectiveness of spatial closures designed to reduce salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea pollock fishery. We compare the relative effectiveness of spatial management measures that have been implemented with tradable salmon bycatch programs that will be implemented in 2011. We demonstrate the importance of having individual bycatch quota under a hard cap which could otherwise erode benefits in the rationalized fishery