Alaskan Pollock

“People living along the Yukon River think they know what is to blame — pollock fishery. The fishery — the nation’s largest — removes about 1 million metric tons of pollock each year from the eastern Bering Sea. Its wholesale value is nearly $1 billion.”

“We do know for a fact that the pollock fishery is slaughtering wholesale and wiping out the king salmon stocks out there that are coming into all the major tributaries,” said Nick Andrew Jr., executive director of the Ohagamuit Traditional Council. “The pollock fishery is taking away our way of living.”

Since 2000, the incidental number of king salmon caught has skyrocketed, reaching over 120,000 kings in 2007. A substantial portion of those fish were bound for western Alaska rivers. If those fish had lived, an estimated 78,000 adult fish would have returned to rivers from the Pacific Northwest to Western Alaska.”

“The world’s largest food fishery is on the verge of collapse. Pollock, used to make McDonald’s fish sandwiches, frozen fish sticks, fish and chips, and imitation crabmeat, have had a population decrease of 50 percent since last year.”

Over harvesting of pollock along with the incidental catch of Kings. Perhaps some of that 1% feel good eco dollar should be spent on this issue, as well as the habitat concerns of Pebble?