US fisheries regulators are mulling new rules to crack down on chum salmon bycatch by the Alaska pollock fleet in the Bering Sea, KUCB reports.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) -- which sets policy in federal waters in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) -- began meeting Monday to discuss potential new rules to limit chum salmon bycatch in the Bering Sea by trawlers. 

The council is reviewing options such as closing certain fishing areas when Western Alaska salmon are at their peak run or shutting down the pollock fishery if the trawl fleet hits a certain bycatch threshold, a so-called hard cap.

The policy debate pits a multibillion-dollar industry against Western Alaska subsistence communities struggling with record-low salmon returns -- with climate change playing a pivotal role.

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Western Alaska's chum salmon runs are in crisis, with some rivers seeing fish returns drop by about 90% since 2020 for a fish that Indigenous communities rely on as a food source, the public media outlet reported. 

Tribal leaders and environmental groups have urged tighter restrictions on how many salmon can be accidentally caught in trawl nets. 

But there's a disagreement about whether new limits will help. Many industry representatives point to science that shows climate change, not bycatch, is the main culprit for declining salmon populations.

"Climate change is an issue, but that's something that we've got no control over," said Jackie Boyer of SalmonState, an Alaska-based conservationist nonprofit that works to protect salmon habitat and fisheries. "But what we do have control over is bycatch."

The pollock industry has strongly pushed back against increasing restrictions on the fishery. 

American Seafoods vice president of fisheries and sustainability Trent Hartill, a major pollock producer in the Bering Sea, argues a hard cap would be a blunt instrument that would hurt the industry.

"We need to craft our approach to specifically address minimizing Western Alaska chum salmon, taking into account those times and areas of when they occur," Hartill said, the Unalaska, Alaska-based public media outlet reported.

Action on the issue is unlikely at this month's meeting. The NPFMC, which meets five times a year, is taking public comment from a variety of places and reviewing data from its statistical and scientific committee that would inform future rules.

Public testimony began Tuesday (Feb. 4) and the full council will take up the issue at its upcoming meeting, being held Feb. 7-11 in the Egan Center in Anchorage, Alaska. It can be streamed through the North Pacific Fishery Management Council's website.

The pollock fishery is the largest in the US by volume. According to federal data, the total number of chum salmon the pollock fleet caught last year was down 94% from 2021, dropping from 545,901 to 35,125 fish, KUCB reported.