Unalaska, AK – The North Pacific Fishery Management Council officially set the 2010 pollock quota at 813,000 metric tons for 2010, 2,000 metric tons less than 2009. It's the lowest quota in 32 years. It is based on recommendations from the groundfish plan team, which used survey data to set the level. Last year biologists at the Alaska Fisheries Science Center predicted that the population would increase and quotas would go up again for 2010. That was not the case this year, but they make the same prediction for next year because survey results showed a strong 2008 year class.

Some environmentalists disagree. Jon Warrenchuk, an ocean scientist with Oceana, thinks the quota should have been cut to 433,000 metric tons. He says that the pollock population cannot increase because most of the large, spawning age fish are being harvested.

"The effect of that is, you're essentially removing the capital you have left in the bank and relying on the dividends, or the younger pollock, which are uncertain."

Warrenchuk says the fishery managers are relying on uncertain numbers and are basing decisions on the hopes of one strong year class. He says there needs to be more age diversity in the population.

"You know fisheries management is really about keeping enough fish in the ocean, or in the bank, to sustain fisheries over the long-term as well as everything else that relies on the fish. So when you start to over rely on uncertain numbers of incoming fish, you start to really unbalance the risk associated with long-term sustainability here."

Oceana and other environmental groups advocate for an ecosystems approach to fishery management rather than a species management system.

When presenting the survey data earlier this year, biologists said that the 2006 year class of fish was smaller than expected, and they could not recommend the expected increase in quota. However, they think the 2008 year class will be above average in size, but that number is still highly uncertain.