Cod sector splits are the culmination of many years of struggle in trying to divide the cod quota between gear types, vessel sizes and areas, which has been complicated by the Alaska Board of Fisheries being unable to take any action on the fishery in state waters (within 3 miles of shore) due to constitutional restrictions.

The council took action last spring to eliminate cod licenses, called LLPs, that had been unused or had had scant deliveries. It retired LLPs that had gone unused from 2002 through Dec. 8, 2008, and also added catch thresholds and gear-specific endorsements.

The result was the elimination of more than 600 of the 883 LLPs for catcher vessels in the central Gulf of Alaska, and about 170 of the 264 held in the western GOA. Catcher-processors are expected to drop from 31 to 17 in the western GOA, and from 49 to 20 in the central GOA.

Council executive director Chris Oliver explained that sector splits are the next step after retiring the unused or underused LLPs.

"The council was considering the recency requirements for LLPs," Oliver said, "which was so that they could get a handle on what the makeup of the fleet was, which then would put them in a better position to make an informed decision on sector splits. A lot of people were saying, 'we're not ready to make a decision on how to divide this stuff among sectors when we don't know how many people might be fishing it in each sector.'"

The council is expected to take final action on sector splits in December and implement new regulations by 2011.

Separating skates as a target species with a designated quota, rather than lumping them in with multiple species under an "other" designation, also has been years in the making. Oliver said that enough research has been done to manage the species responsibly.

"There has been some conservation concerns with some of the skate species just in the sense that we weren't sure there were enough out there for any directed fishery," he said. "We did allow a couple of years ago for a directed fishery, a sort of experimental fishery, but it didn't really pan out like people thought. However, there is some significant bycatch in some of the fisheries, so we basically decided that since we do have adequate information on the biomass and distribution of the species, then it would make sense to set a separate ABC (Acceptable Biological Catch) for them."

Allowing skates to continue under management of the "other" species would have allowed for over-harvesting, and the targeted designation allows for better conservation.

The council also will take up regional delivery relief for the crab fisheries, which will provide options when problems are encountered such as Bering Sea ice blocking the harbors in the Pribilof Islands, making for dangerous conditions for crab boats to make deliveries under the processor quota provisions of crab rationalization, which require boats to deliver 90 percent of their catch to designated processors in designated ports.

A full agenda, schedule and issue papers can be found online at www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc/default.htm.

The wood-hulled tender Unimak went aground near Chignik last week in stormy conditions, resulting in the loss of the vessel, but no loss of life.

The three-man crew was tendering cod in the area and were rescued by the Good Samaritan vessel Sylvia Star, for whom they had been tendering cod, after abandoning ship in a life raft.

The U.S. Coast Guard has been monitoring the scene for a fuel sheen. There was no sheen reported the next day, although the response crew has seen a light sheen since. There was reportedly 800 gallons of diesel on board, and the owner has contracted with Magone Marine, a salvage company based in Dutch Harbor, to remove the fuel and other materials from the vessel.

Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She can be reached at realist468@gmail.com.