Unalaska, AK – The North Pacific Fishery Management Council agreed yesterday to decrease its 2007 quota for pollock, Alaska's largest commercial fishery. 2007's total allowable catch for the fish will be 1.394 million metric tons, a 5.8 percent reduction from this year's quota. The cut wasn't unexpected--last year's pollock quota was the highest ever for the fishery, and the council's groundfish planning team had suggested an even greater reduction at its November meeting.

Paul MacGregor, general counsel for the At Sea Processors Association, which represents some of the biggest ships in the pollock fleet, said the lower numbers aren't a surprise, and that industry was expecting them.

"We have a much longer frame of reference then a year-to-year frame of reference," he said. "Sometimes [the quota] goes up, sometimes it goes down, and by and large we still catch an awful lot of fish up there, and have a very healthy resource, so we're pleased with the program."

The reduction recommended by the council's Scientific and Statistical Committee and approved by the council yesterday is relatively generous to fishermen, setting the quota 94,000 metric tons higher than the groundfish team's recommendation. That difference that translates into about $80 million dollars worth of fish. But Michelle Ridgeway, a marine biologist who sits on the SSC, said that a lower quota would've provided crucial support to the female pollock population and helped to stabilize the fishery.

"With only a 5.8 percent trim on our harvest, we may not be able to smooth out this downward trajectory of pollock over the next few years," she said.

Alaska's pollock industry is worth more than a billion dollars annually, and has been relatively stable for years. But there are ominous signs that the fishery's future could be less rosy. Warming seas are driving pollock north out of Alaskan waters. And in recent years, pollock food sources in the Bering Sea have dropped off sharply, while the population of arrowtooth flounder, a pollock predator, has grown.