Vessel Traffic Overview

Updated:October 9, 2009 15:03

Fishing Vessel Traffic in the Aleutians Subarea

 

Figure 10 shows the primary fishing grounds in the Aleutians Subarea.

There are three categories of fisheries in the Aleutians Subarea: groundfish (pollock, cod, halibut, rockfish, Atka mackerel, and other flatfish), crab (king, tanner, snow) and finfish (salmon and herring). While salmon and herring are important fisheries in the Bristol Bay Subarea, they are a minor component of the Aleutians Subarea fisheries and are not considered for the purpose of this report. The groundfish and crab fisheries of the Aleutians Subarea are the biggest in North America in terms of value and poundage. The groundfish fishery occurs in two fishing areas: the Bering Sea/Aleutians (BSA) area and the Gulf of Alaska (GOA) area. The major crab fisheries occur in the BSA area. Appendix A contains fact sheets on most of the major fisheries in the Aleutians Subarea.

In order to determine the number, size, and fuel capacity of vessels participating in the groundfish fisheries, data was acquired from the 2004 NMFS groundfish observer database and the Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission’s vessel database. Each entry in the groundfish observer database is an observer week; the observer was aboard a specific vessel in a particular fishery for at least a portion of a given week. All of the large vessels (>125 feet) participating in a groundfish fishery are observed. Thirty percent of the small vessels (60 to 125 feet) participating in a groundfish fishery are observed. No vessels less than 60 feet are observed.

Two hundred seventy-seven (277) different vessels participated in the fisheries in the BSA/GOA districts in 2004. Over 3,000 vessel weeks of effort were observed during the year. Given that many of the vessels are only observed 30% of the time, the actual effort is in excess of 6,000 vessel weeks. The effort data indicate that:

• 50% of the effort goes toward the Pacific cod fisheries,
• 30% of the effort goes toward pollock fisheries, and
• 20% of the effort goes to all other groundfish fisheries combined.

The total value of the pollock and cod fisheries is about 1.5 billion dollars annually.

Table 5 gives information on the groundfish fishing fleet by length, tonnage and median fuel capacity. The median fuel capacity for the groundfish fleet is 30,000 gallons. All but one of these vessels uses non-persistent fuel. A query of vessel tonnage in the database revealed 61 (22%) of the groundfish fleet are greater than 400 gross tons and are required to hold a Nontank Vessel Oil Discharge Prevention and Contingency Plan with the ADEC.

In addition to the groundfish fishing fleet, the crab fishing fleet includes approximately 120 additional fishing vessels. Specific information on these vessels was not available at the time of this report, but they are known to use diesel fuel exclusively. These vessels typically range in length from 75 to 174 feet.

Figure 11 uses information from the NMFS groundfish observers database and the ADFG crab vessel registration database to estimate the fishing effort by month during 2004. This figure reveals that fishing efforts peak with about 650 vessel weeks in February during the peak of the pollock “A” and Pacific cod seasons. Another peak of about 550 vessel weeks occurs during October when the King Crab fishery coincides with the pollock “B” season.