Background: Climate Change in the Bering Sea

The Earth’s climate is changing. 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 earlier in spring. Sea ice is thinner in places. 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 conditions  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 until a long-term plan for the northern Bering Sea is developed. Fishery managers stipulated that a 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.
   

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 on a Northern Bering Sea Research Plan in 2011. Areas not protected could then become open to bottom trawling through  experimental fishing permits.  Bottom trawling could be allowed in this area on a commercial scale in the future. Federal fishery managers are also scheduled to consider changes to the boundary along  Nunivak Island, Etolin Strait and Kuskokwim Bay.

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.