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The Bering Sea Ecosystem (1996) / Chapter Skim
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Pages 156-195

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From page 156...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 156 5 Human Use -- Fisheries This chapter provides a brief history of commercial and subsistence fisheries on invertebrate, fish, and mammal populations in the Bering Sea region, including interactions of indigenous peoples with the marine ecosystem. Because the states of knowledge and the histories of exploitation are so different for the eastern and western Bering Sea, exploitation and management are described separately for those two regions.
From page 157...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 157 of rivers and along streams to take advantage of this annual event. The importance of salmon to native peoples of the Bering Sea is reflected in their culture, art, and song.
From page 158...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 158 Figure 5.1a,b Western Alaska total and sockeye salmon fishery production; western Alaska sockeye salmon in-area catch and interceptions (R. Francis, Personal Communication)
From page 159...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 159 a food source as accessible as the returning salmon, native peoples quickly learned to utilize those marine fishes that were common to their area. These fish were an important part of the life of native people, and dependence on demersal species may have been critical to their survival during those seasons when other sources of food were scarce or lacking.
From page 160...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 160 Figure 5.2 Northeast Pacific halibut catch in the Bering Sea and Aleutians, 1929–90 (IPHC, 1994)
From page 161...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 161 fishermen began using benthic trawl gear. Since 1960, a combination of hook-and-line, trawl (both benthic and pelagic nets)
From page 162...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 162 catches peaked at over 1.4 million t in 1989 in the donut hole, and at over 260,000 t in 1991 near Bogoslof Island. Both of these fisheries had virtually disappeared by 1992.
From page 163...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 163 Figure 5.4 Herring catches from all Alaska herring fisheries, 1930–92 (with the projected 1993 catch)
From page 164...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 164 Figure 5.5 Alaska herring sac roe take harvests from all areas, 1978–92 (with the projected 1993 sac roe take)
From page 165...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 165 King Crab. Commercial king crab fishing in the eastern Bering Sea began with the Japanese in 1930 and continued until 1940.
From page 166...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 166 Brown (or golden) king crab is a deep water crab and the smallest of the three king crab species.
From page 167...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 167 Figure 5.7a,b,c,d, U.S. crab landings in millions of pounds and abundances of legal or total crab, by species and region, 1966–93 (catch per unit effort as crabs per pot)
From page 168...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 168 fishery gradually expanded, and annual landings of 1.2 to 3.0 million lb occurred from 1945 to the mid-1950s (Gaffney, 1981)
From page 169...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 169 coastal enterprise. The species targeted were salmon and herring of the northwestern Bering Sea and eastern Kamchatka (see Figure 5.8 for locations mentioned in the text below)
From page 170...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 170 Figure 5.8 Locations of geographic features mentioned in the text (modified from Hood and Kelly, 1974)
From page 171...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 171 first in the total decline of regional landings, and then in substantial changes in the structure and composition of regional fish populations. Not all of this was a direct result of fishing, however.
From page 172...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 172 Table 5.2 Assessment of Bering Sea productivity Fish Production Ichthyomass (million t) with Annual P/ Lower 2 Upper Limits of (million t raw mass)
From page 173...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 173 (whether targeted or incidental) can greatly affect the overall population (Birman, 1985; Naske and Slotnick, 1987; see also NRC, 1996 for a discussion of salmon declines in the Pacific Northwest)
From page 174...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 174 in the eastern Bering Sea and climate change is mentioned earlier in this chapter, and the correlation is further analyzed in Chapter 6. Herring.
From page 175...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 175 and are found in the Navarin area. Russian scientists disagree about what part of the total Bering Sea pollock stock comes from Asian spawning aggregations.
From page 176...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 176 have stabilized at the historically minimum levels of 319,000 t, 48,000 t, and 20,000 t, respectively. These dynamics of western Bering Sea pelagic communities might be connected with both human-induced and climatic/oceanographic conditions.
From page 177...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 177 Table 5.3 Dynamics of the main environmental parameters of the western Bering Sea Period Average Average t° of water at the surface °C t° of air Ice Biomass of Station Apuka Station Ossora Station Korf Surface in Zooplankton 1 2 1 2 1 2 3 4 Western in Olutorsky Bering, Bay (mg/m 2) Jan.–May (thousand km2)
From page 178...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 178 Table 5.4 Catches of the main commercial species in the western Bering Sea (thousand tons) Species/Periods 1958–65 1966–73 1974–87 1988–93 Pollock - 106.27 20.5 922.8 Herring 131.1 24.0 13.9 9.6 Cod 3.8 8.9 43.3 75.9 Saffron Cod 3.4 4.1 19.0 10.3 Flounder 8.1 13.9 15.9 24.1 Salmon n/aa 15.3 30.3 48.1 an/a, not available Source: Calculated from the data of the VNIRO Department of Fishery Statistics.
From page 179...
... Table 5.5 Groundfish composition (percent) and biomass at the shelf of the western Bering Sea Areas (years of Average Skates Cods Eelpouts Sculpins Sea Poachers Liparids Flatfish Other Total Surveys)
From page 180...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 180 Despite the inadequacy of knowledge on the state of stocks before their commercial exploitation, Russian experts still consider demersal communities of the western Bering Sea to be resistant to external impacts. The conclusion that its structure and normal functioning had been irreversibly damaged by fishing is not supported by the available data (Shuntov et al., 1990)
From page 181...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 181 ban. The treaty worked well, resulting in a steady increase in numbers of seals on the Pribilof Islands, while allowing for a moderate catch.
From page 182...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 182 and list especially important habitat areas within their territory to the fullest extent possible (Wallace, 1994)
From page 183...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 183 Management in the Bering Sea) , beluga whales (the Alaska Beluga Whale Committee)
From page 184...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 184 In earlier years, meat and blubber were eaten, blubber served as fuel, and skins, bones, organs, ivory, and feathers were used to fashion a wide variety of clothing, tools, and other objects. Although imported materials have replaced marine mammal parts for some of these uses, in many coastal communities marine mammals are still an important source of food and products for handicrafts.
From page 185...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 185 spatially and over time; this method allowed higher productivity of the food resources, while preventing its disastrous depletion (although localized shortages did occur)
From page 186...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 186 animals -- pregnant or nursing females, and cubs. In the 1920s, for instance, hunting pressure of Chukotka natives on stocks of marine mammals reached a level at which populations were not being replaced, and by the 1930s had significantly exceeded these levels.
From page 187...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 187 of hunting and fishing. The number of native maritime hunters diminished from 700 in the early 1960s to 200 in 1985 (History and Culture of Chukchis, 1987)
From page 188...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 188 resulted in the extinction of one species (the Steller sea cow) and the severe depletion of several others (sea otters, fur seals, walrus, and right, bowhead, and gray whales)
From page 189...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 189 Steller sea lions on the Pribilof Islands were apparently heavily exploited beginning in the late 1700s as a result of Russian occupation. Sparse records indicate that many thousands of animals were taken for meat and hides.
From page 190...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 190 Figure 5.9 History of northern fur seal exploitation, Pribilof Islands, Alaska, 1786–79 (data are five-year averages)
From page 191...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 191 Table 5.6 Total number of fur seals taken annually on the Pribilof Islands, 1911–93 Year Total Kill Year Total Kill 1911 11,899 1952 63,870 1912 3,169 1953 66,068 1913 2,406 1954 63,882 1914 2,735 1955 65,453 1915 3,947 1956 122,826 1916 6,466 1957 93,661 1917 8,169 1958 75,797 1918 34,890 1959 58,257 1919 27,790 1960 40,635 1920 26,648 1961 126,046 1921 23,656 1962 97,440 1922 31,152 1963 86,338 1923 15,854 1964 65,432 1924 17,189 1965 52,554 1925 19,839 1966 52,888 1926 22,088 1967 65,816 1927 24,916 1968 58,960 1928 31,061 1969 38,908 1929 40,068 1970 42,241 1930 42,497 1971 31,849 1931 49,516 1972 37,393 1932 49,329 1973 28,482 1933 54,550 1974 33,027 1934 53,468 1975 29,148 1935 57,296 1976 23,296 1936 52,446 1977 28,794 1937 55,180 1978 25,183 1938 58,364 1979 26,113 1939 60,473 1980 24,677 1940 64,856 1981 24,276 1941 95,013 1982 25,177 1942 150 1983 26,268 1943 117,164 1984 22,416 1944 47,652 1985 3,713 1945 76,964 1986 1,439 1946 64,523 1987 1,802 1947 61,447 1988 1,258 1948 70,142 1989 1,521 1949 70,890 1990 1,241 1950 60,090 1991 1,926 1951 60,689 1992 1,676 1993 1,837 Source: NMFS, unpublished data.
From page 192...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 192 Harbor Seal From 1927 to 1967 U.S. federal and state governments paid a bounty on seals to encourage catches.
From page 193...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 193 1983 (Quakenbush, 1988)
From page 194...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 194 Alaskan sea otters are sometimes taken incidentally in commercial fisheries, especially gill net fisheries, but the number taken is relatively small (Young et al., 1993)
From page 195...
... HUMAN USE -- FISHERIES 195 to 1970s included 5,761 blue whales, more than 26,040 fin whales, 74,215 sei whales, and 30,143 humpback whales (NMFS, 1991b)

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