An excellent article in #Politico about the problems around the Alaska #groundfish factory trawlers (for Pollock and Sole) and the associated #bycatch of at-risk fish stocks such as Halibut, crab and salmon being implicated in the multi-species population collapses. Good discussion about the politics, history, economics and lack of Indigenous representation in Alaskan fish stocks.
https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2023/03/03/alaskas-fisheries-collapsing-peltola-industry-blame-00066843
@DrPlanktonguy I'm surprised they are allowed to discard commercially viable species.
@KorimakoEcology bycatch discards is a very controversial practice that has to do with the nature of how we license fishing - they can only bring in those species. It has been suggested that their bycatch should count to their total catch, but this has issues as well. Some fisheries are more than half bycatch especially baited longlines, and shrimp (because of the small mesh size required). It gets worse as the fish stock declines and deepwater bycatch is mostly killed.
https://oceana.org/press-releases/new-oceana-report-exposes-nine-dirtiest-us-fisheries/
@DrPlanktonguy Ah, right. That's a problem.
The deemed value system in Aotearoa New Zealand has its own issues but at least most fish is being utilised rather than being discarded.