The Alaska Pollock and Northern Cod Fisheries

[Isabella Erickson]

From what I have read, the main difference between the Alaska Pollock fishery and the Northern Cod fishery is the timeframe, and that Alaska’s Pollock has yet to totally collapse like Northern Cod had. People have been fishing for Northern Cod for thousands of years, and the decades old Alaska Pollock fishery has been around for a relatively brief time. However, pollock in Alaska is still being fished regularly and sustainably, with fluctuations in the population that are a part of their natural process. Meanwhile, the Northern Cod fishery had to be shut down in 1992 and has yet to really recover after almost 30 years.
The Northern Cod and Alaska Pollock fisheries also have a lot in common. They were both fished mostly by foreigners until 1976 when the 200 mile limit was set, and then were fished mostly by Canada and the United States of America respectively. In both fisheries there was a dramatic increase in the amount of fish harvested and the technology used to fish after World War 2. There are also places in both fisheries that are outside of the 200 mile limit, and are free for any nation to fish at any time with little to none regulations. For Alaska Pollock this is, as Bailey calls it, the donut hole, and for Northern Cod this is the nose and tail of the bank. Also, both the Alaska Pollock fishery and the Northern Cod fishery are fairly well managed now.

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