Members of the Alaska Bycatch Advisory Council have adopted six recommendations for state engagement to be reviewed at the council’s virtual meeting on May 1, including bycatch informational forums and a website with bycatch related links.
Council recommendations call for continuing opportunity for the public to provide input on federal fisheries issues at meetings of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC), consideration for expansion of a program allowing for gear modification or technological improvements to help reduce bycatch, and use of the Alaska Bycatch Review Task Force as a template with the state establishing a permanent bycatch advisory entity.
The recommendations also ask the state to work with the Alaska Board of Fisheries, stakeholders, and a bycatch advisory entity to develop a state bycatch policy. The policy is to be used by the Alaska Board of Fisheries when addressing state waters bycatch issues and considered by the state’s representative on the NPFMC when developing the state’s position on bycatch issues in federally managed waters.
Those wishing to provide comment at the meeting are asked to focus on the recommendations and to submit written comment to the council at DFG.dcf.bycatchreview@alaska.gov.
The meeting is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. on May 1 via the zoom meeting link https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8542121165. The meeting ID is 85421211653. Dial in with the phone number 253-215-8782.
All meeting information, plus additional resources, are to be posted online at https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=bycatchtaskforce.meetinginfo.
The council’s next scheduled meeting is on May 23.
