Ep. 864: Is Trawling Destroying Alaska's Fisheries?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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This is the Meat Eater Podcast coming at you shirtless, severely bug-bitten, and in my case, underwearless. We hunt the Meat Eater Podcast. You can't predict anything. Brought to you by First Light. When I'm hunting, I need gear that won't quit. First Light builds. No compromise gear that keeps me in the field longer. No shortcuts, just gear that works. Check it out at firstlight.com. That's F-I-R-S-T.com. L-I-T-E dot com. All right, everybody. We got a hot one today coming out of Alaska. Real controversial issue, it turns out. We're going to talk about trawling. We're going to talk about fisheries, fisheries management, habitat issues, all leading out of a lot of conversations that people have been hearing about and having about declining king salmon numbers, declining halibut numbers.
Guys, if you go up to sport fishing in Alaska, you dream of going up to fish halibut and salmon in Alaska, this is an issue you've got to pay attention to. Where this conversation came out of is on the news show. We recently covered this, I don't want to call it an emerging controversy around trawling and impacts to fisheries and bycatch and all these conversations. This is an age-old discussion. Okay. This is an age old discussion. It's a discussion that sort of plays along in any region where you have declining fisheries and people have to start looking at there's like the pie, right? The fishery who's drawing from the fishery and what is leading to fishery declines. Oftentimes in these conversations, the conversations will turn to what fisheries are having the greatest ecological impact, um,
Those discussions take place. Trawling is an age-old controversy. There's places in Alaska where you used to be able to trawl. We're going to talk about all these definitions, so don't worry. There's places in Alaska you used to be able to trawl, and the fisheries have been shut down. On the news show, we were talking about an increased focus among fishermen on the impacts of the trawling industry in Prince William Sound,
What is the impact of trawling on Alaska's fisheries?
or the Gulf of Alaska in general, the Bering Sea, and whether or not this commercial fishery is linked to declines in salmon and halibut numbers. We're just talking about this on the news show. Talking about how it's a heated up political issue. Man, that led to a lot of feedback, a lot of listener feedback. We heard from a bunch of sport fishermen, charter captains. We heard from hell, but long liners. We heard from salmon purse saners, right? Talking about the damages of the trawling industry. And then we heard from a lot of people from the trawling industry talking about basically, Hey, it ain't our fault. The numbers are wrong. The numbers are misleading. This is all coming from outside interest. There's nothing to see here.
Okay. So I thought based on the amount of conversation that our conversation generated, I wanted to dig in on this a little bit. So number one guest we're having on right now is David Bays. Okay. David Bays is a leader of a Facebook group called Stop Alaskan Trawler Bycatch. He is a former, he's a fishing guide in Alaska. He used to have his own charter outfit, still in the business. He was the 2024 Sam McDowell Award winner. He's the former chair of the Alaska Charter Association and the Homer Charter Association and a former member of the Homer Area Alaska Department of Fish and Game Advisory Committee. All right. Welcome, David. Yeah, I appreciate it. Thanks for coming on, man. Yeah. So start out, uh, start out, we're going to get into all these definitions.
Okay. And that was a terrible intro, but we'll start the intro out.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–3:04
2
What is the impact of trawling on Alaska's fisheries?
3:04–5:26
3
How do trawling practices affect fish populations?
5:26–8:18
4
What are the differences between bottom trawling and midwater trawling?
8:18–33:03
5
What is the significance of bycatch in trawling?
33:03–1:12:06
6
How do regulations differ between the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska?
1:12:06–1:47:45
7
What are the ecological consequences of trawling?
1:47:45–1:48:15