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2009-04-21 17:09:34
NEWS RELEASE
April 20, 2009
Sheela McLean, Public Affairs
(907) 586-7032
NOAA eases monitoring requirements for dinglebar fishermen
NOAA Fisheries in Alaska has eased vessel monitoring requirements—and costs—for boats fishing for lingcod with dinglebar gear in the Gulf of Alaska.
"The eight to twelve fishermen who catch lingcod with dinglebar gear each year in the Gulf fish at fairly shallow depths away from corals," said Doug Mecum, Acting Administrator for the Alaska Region of NOAA Fisheries. "We are dropping our current requirement that these few boats carry vessel monitoring systems."
Previously, dinglebar fishermen participating in the State of Alaska-managed fishery for lingcod in the Gulf were required to carry a vessel monitoring system to track vessels and enforce the prohibition against fishing in habitat areas of particular concern, specifically coral habitat protection areas in the Fairweather Grounds and near Cape Ommaney.
Most of the sea bottom in the Fairweather and Cap Ommaney coral habitat protection areas lies below 80 fathoms. Ninety-six percent of the lingcod fishing logbooks from 1998-2002 indicate fishing at average depths shallower than 80 fathoms, and 80 percent at depths shallower than 50 fathoms. More recently, 94 percent of the logbook reports indicated fishing at depths shallower than 50 fathoms.
"The threat that lingcod fisheries pose in the Gulf of Alaska to protected corals is small and insufficient to justify requiring a vessel monitoring system on each boat," said Mecum.
Dinglebar gear is similar to salmon troll gear: a main line carries other, shorter lines each with a hook. However, dinglebar gear has a main weight added, which pulls the lines down and closer to the bottom. The weight itself may strike the bottom.
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