Aleutian Islands Ecosystem
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DRAFT Aleutian Islands Fishery Ecosystem Plan Aleutian Islands Ecosystem “Our creation story tells us that we dropped from the heavens above onto these islands that stretch across the stormy seas like a lifeline. Some say we walked across a land bridge… now why would we have walked when our iqyak and nigalax are among the best ocean going boats built by any people anywhere? An Aleut would have paddled, not walked.” by Allan Hayton, Alaska Initiative for Community Engagement (http://www.alaskaice.org/material.php?matID=535) May 17, 2007 DRAFT ALEUTIAN ISLANDS FEP Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Purpose of the Fishery Ecosystem Plan .............................................................................1 1.2 Scope and role of the FEP ..................................................................................................2 1.3 Implementation and use of the FEP....................................................................................3 1.4 Approach of this document..................................................................................................5 2 GEOGRAPHIC DEFINITION OF ALEUTIAN ISLANDS ECOSYSTEM 6 3 UNDERSTANDING THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS ECOSYSTEM 8 3.1 Historical perspectives ........................................................................................................8 Aleutian human populations 8 Aleutian animal populations 12 Commercial exploitation 17 3.2 Physical relationships........................................................................................................21 Physical description 21 Benthic habitat 21 Oceanography (pelagic habitat) 22 Climate (terrestrial habitat) 23 How is the Aleutian Islands ecosystem different from the surrounding ecosystems? 24 3.3 Biological relationships......................................................................................................25 Species distribution, richness, and diversity 25 Key species and energy flow in the regional AI food web 28 Predator-prey relationships for key species 32 Spatial food web relationships in the Aleutian Islands 38 Energy flow: leaky ecosystem boundaries 41 How is the Aleutian Islands ecosystem different from the surrounding ecosystems? 43 3.4 Socioeconomic relationships in the Aleutian Islands ecosystem ......................................44 Unangam Tunuu 44 Communities in the ecosystem today 44 Commercial fisheries 47 Subsistence fisheries 52 Recreational fisheries 53 Other human activities in the ecosystem 53 How is the Aleutian Islands ecosystem different from the surrounding ecosystems? 56 3.5 Management processes....................................................................................................57 Regulatory boundaries 57 Federal groundfish fisheries 59 Halibut fishery 64 Scallop fishery 64 King and tanner crab fishery 64 State-managed or parallel fisheries 66 Fishery Bycatch 67 4 ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT 70 4.1 Methodology......................................................................................................................70 May 17, 2007 DRAFT ALEUTIAN ISLANDS FEP Methodology for risk assessment 71 Implications for management 72 Tracking critical interactions 72 4.2 Climate and physical interactions......................................................................................73 4.3 Predator-prey Interactions.................................................................................................80 4.4 Fishing Effects Interactions ...............................................................................................95 4.5 Regulatory Interactions ...................................................................................................110 4.6 Other socioeconomic activity interactions .......................................................................116 4.7 Summary of risk assessment findings.............................................................................129 4.8 Cumulative interactions...................................................................................................131 5 MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES 132 5.1 Council and State of Alaska management policies .........................................................132 BSAI Groundfish FMP 132 BSAI King and Tanner Crab FMP 133 State of Alaska King and Tanner Crab Management Policy 133 Alaska Board of Fisheries Management Plan for forage fish in the waters of Alaska 134 5.2 Matching AI ecosystem interactions to management objectives.....................................135 6 PRIORITIES AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE COUNCIL 138 6.1 Summary of interactions and opportunities for Council action ........................................138 6.2 Area-specific management for the Aleutian Islands ecosystem......................................144 6.3 Improve process to account for ecosystem considerations in fishery management .......144 6.4 Dialogue with non-fishery agencies.................................................................................146 6.5 Data gaps and research needs .......................................................................................146 7 WHAT IS THE ‘VALUE ADDED’ OF THIS FEP PROCESS? 150 8 FUTURE STEPS 151 8.1 How to use the FEP ........................................................................................................151 8.2 How to build on the FEP..................................................................................................152 9 REFERENCES AND PREPARERS 154 9.1 References......................................................................................................................154 9.2 Acronyms and abbreviations...........................................................................................162 9.3 Preparers.........................................................................................................................163 APPENDICES 164 Appendix A Community meetings and public input the development of the FEP ..................165 May 17, 2007 DRAFT ALEUTIAN ISLANDS FEP Appendix B History of natural resource exploitation ..............................................................166 History of exploitation 166 History of commercial exploitation in the Aleutians 168 Appendix C Species listed under the Endangered Species Act .........................................176 Appendix D Food web interaction strength tables ..............................................................177 Appendix E Sample size for spatial diet data in the AI ..........................................................184 Appendix F Research activity in the AI ..................................................................................185 May 17, 2007 DRAFT ALEUTIAN ISLANDS FEP 1 Introduction The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (hereafter ‘the Council’) is faced with a growing national momentum to adopt an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. NOAA has articulated a mission goal that management should “be adaptive, specified geographically, take account of ecosystem knowledge and uncertainties, consider multiple external influences, and strive to balance diverse societal objectives” (NOAA 2004). In many ways, the Council’s current management approach reflects these elements. Where possible, and given the current level of understanding, ecosystem considerations are incorporated into North Pacific fishery management, particularly with regard to conservative harvest levels and spatial and temporal closure areas to protect other species. Yet there is always progress to be made, especially as it pertains to the development of a formal process to integrate ecosystem considerations as the Council moves forward with an ecosystem approach to fisheries management. A great deal of national attention has focused on the concept of Fishery Ecosystem Plans (FEPs; NOAA 1999, Sissenwine and Mace 2003). Yet examples of FEPs or other types of fishery ecosystem management documents, both nationally and internationally, are few, and there is no template for their development and implementation, or a clear and direct relationship to the fishery management plans (FMPs) that currently authorize Federal fisheries under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act. The Council has a unique opportunity to take the lead in moving forward with an ecosystem approach to fishery management and design a FEP that is appropriate and useful to Alaskan fishery management. The Council has chosen the Aleutian Islands as the pilot ecosystem area for this first Alaskan FEP. The Aleutian Islands area is an ideal candidate as it is ecologically and historically unique in several aspects. Many Council management actions in the past have focused on the area’s important resources, such as Steller sea lions, seabirds, benthic habitats that support coral and sponges, and other special resources of public interest (such as deep sea coral gardens). The Aleutian Islands have also been at the center of allocation issues related to the Aleutian Islands pollock and Pacific cod fisheries. Far less is understood about the ecological interactions in the Aleutians than in the eastern Bering Sea, yet the two areas are managed conjointly in the Federal fishery management plans. The Council recognizes that the Aleutian Islands contain unique and valuable ecological qualities that should be preserved, and wishes to build upon past actions by considering fishery interactions and cumulative impacts within this ecosystem more explicitly. Applying an ecosystem approach to fisheries management