The limits are meant to prevent trawlers from wasting Chinook salmon that would otherwise return to the Yukon River and other spawning grounds. Western Alaska leaders who had pushed for much tighter restrictions on Wednesday (May 19) blasted Commerce Secretary Gary Locke's decision to accept the plan, which was recommended last year by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council.

 

''Western Alaskan tribes as well as those responsible for managing our fisheries in river spoke loudly and clearly, but our requests fell on deaf ears to both the council and the Secretary of Commerce,'' said Myron Naneng, president of the Bethel-based Association of Village Council Presidents, in a written statement from regional non-profits and fisheries groups.

 

But federal officials said the new programme will change the way the pollock fleet operates in the Bering Sea, and the fishery council's focus on king salmon bycatch is already paying off with a sharp reduction in the number of Chinook the trawlers catch.

 

''People are generally recognising that the fleet has already changed its fishing practices,'' said Doug Mecum, deputy regional administrator for National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) fisheries in Alaska.

 

Fewer than 20,000 kings a year have been caught by the pollock fleet over the past three years, Mecum said. In contrast, the Bering Sea fleet caught more than 120,000 Chinook in 2007, thus prompting the council to consider the unprecedented cap on bycatch.

 

Loretta Bullard, president of Kawerak Inc., said the new management plan amounts to self-regulation for the pollock industry. "We've seen how well this has worked for the banking and oil industries," she said.

 

King salmon are a rare source of cash and jobs in Yukon River villages, but poor returns have led to closures and restrictions on commercial and subsistence fishing in recent years. Some Western Alaska fishermen blame the pollock industry for contributing to the decline by intercepting fish that would otherwise return to the river.

 

Last April, the fishery management council approved a plan that calls for the fleet to catch fewer than 47,951 Chinook a year -- or up to 60,000 in any two out of seven years if they participate in an incentive plan. Groups such as the Association of Village Council Presidents, which represents dozens of Yukon-Kuskokwim villages, called for a much lower bycatch cap of 30,000 salmon.