Background: Climate Change in the Bering Sea

The Earth’s climate is warming. Alaska Native people living on the coast, keen observers of the world around us, are witnessing many changes in seasonal patterns, sea ice and animals. Elders report that it’s harder to predict the weather in the traditional way because known indicators are different. In recent years Bering Sea ice has been forming later in the year and melting early in spring. This is changing where different animals find food, how they survive and where they may be available to us for subsistence. Regular scientific surveys show that during recent years that were especially warm, 45 species of fish shifted the center of their range northward. While ocean temperatures vary year-to-year, the trend over time is expected to be warming. With rising temperatures and changes in annual sea ice, commercially valuable fish species are expected to occupy increasingly more northern waters, inviting large-scale fishing fleets to expand operations into new areas. 

Bottom Trawl Boundary and the Northern Bering Sea

In June 2007, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) voted unanimously to establish a northern bottom trawl boundary as a precautionary measure to prevent movement of this fleet northward beyond its current footprint. The boundary is in place while a long-term plan for the northern Bering Sea is being developed. Fishery managers stipulated that the pending northern Bering Sea plan will include protections for:

1. marine mammals that live or migrate through our waters
2. endangered or threatened species (such as Steller sea lions, spectacled eider)
   
3. crab species because they are vulnerable to bottom trawl gear
   
4. subsistence.
   

Areas not protected would then become open to bottom trawling through a special research permit. Bottom trawling could be allowed in this area on a large scale in the future. Federal fishery managers discussed their interest in incorporating traditional knowledge in their analysis and decision-making process.

The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council is scheduled to deliberate and vote on a northern Bering Sea plan in 2011. It will be called the Northern Bering Sea Research Plan.

The Northern Bering Sea Research Area (NBSRA) is currently closed to bottom trawling. A research plan is being developed to study the effects of bottom trawling in this area. The NBSRA may be open to bottom trawling in the future.