Unalaska, AK – Yesterday, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council announced the 2011 total allowable catch for groundfish at its meeting in Anchorage.

The TAC for pollock in the Bering Sea got a 54% boost and has been set at 1.25 million MT. The TAC is a marked increase over the rates set in recent years. In 2009, the TAC was only 813,000 MT. This year's TAC is also just slightly less than the allowable biological catch of 1.27 million MT recommended last month.

The Pacific cod TAC was set at 228,000 MT, and the Pacific Ocean perch TAC was placed at 24,700 - both increases over last year. The Atka mackerel and yellowfin sole TACs both decreased, being set at 53,000 MT and 196,000 MT respectively.

Glenn Reed, who is the president of the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, says the tone of the discussions over the TAC was a shift from previous years.

"We're getting back to the place we were a few years back where a large pollock biomass kind of tends to have the potential to constrain other fisheries," says Reed. "Times are so good that we're constrained a little by our 2 million metric ton cap."