Seabird Bycatch Estimates for Alaska Groundfish Fisheries: 2020
October 05, 2021
Annual update of estimates of seabirds caught as bycatch in commercial groundfish and halibut fisheries operating in Federal waters off Alaska.
Seabirds are unintentionally caught in commercial fisheries. This unintentional catch is referred to as bycatch. Federal law in the U.S. requires bycatch be minimized to the extent practicable. Specific modifications to fishing gear, deployment of mitigation gear, and practices are required by Federal regulation to reduce seabird bycatch.
NOAA Fisheries annually updates estimates of seabirds caught as bycatch in commercial groundfish and halibut fisheries operating in Federal waters off Alaska. This annual report details seabird bycatch estimates by gear type for the years 2011 through 2020. It supplements the “Seabird Bycatch and Mitigation Efforts in Alaska Fisheries Summary Report: 2007 through 2015” (Eich et al. 2016), which has been supplemented previously with data through 2018 (Krieger et al. 2019) and 2019 (Krieger and Eich 2020). The focus of this report is to add and describe seabird bycatch data for 2020. This report presents bycatch estimates from the following gear types: demersal longline, pelagic trawl, non-pelagic trawl, and pot.
Krieger, J.R. and Eich, A.M. 2021. Seabird Bycatch Estimates for Alaska Groundfish Fisheries: 2020. U.S. Department of Commerce, NOAA Technical Memorandum NMFS-F/AKR-25, 40 p. 10.25923/a0fb-nt02