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Aleutian Islands Ecosystem

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Aleutian Islands Ecosystem WORKING 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) March 8, 2007 DRAFT ALEUTIAN ISLANDS FEP Table of Contents 1 INTRODUCTION 5 1.1 Purpose and Need ..............................................................................................................5 1.2 What is a Fishery Ecosystem Plan?....................................................................................6 1.3 Role and Implementation of the FEP ..................................................................................7 2 DESCRIPTION OF ALEUTIAN ISLANDS ECOSYSTEM 9 3 UNDERSTANDING THE ALEUTIAN ISLANDS ECOSYSTEM 11 3.1 Historical Perspectives......................................................................................................11 3.1.1 Aleutian Human Populations 11 Early Aleutian History 11 The Russian and American Colonial Periods 12 Population and Villages since World War II 14 3.1.2 Aleutian animal populations 15 Historical Relationships illustrate connections across ecosystems and food webs 19 3.1.3 Commercial exploitation 19 3.2 Physical relationships........................................................................................................22 Physical Description 22 Benthic Habitat 22 Oceanography (Pelagic Habitat) 23 Climate (Terrestrial Habitat) 24 How is the Aleutian Islands different from the surrounding ecosystems? 25 3.3 Biological relationships......................................................................................................26 Species distribution, richness, and diversity 26 Key Species and energy flow in AI Food web 29 Predator-prey relationships for key species 32 Spatial food web relationships in the Aleutians 35 Energy flow: leaky ecosystem boundaries 38 How is the Aleutian Islands different from the surrounding ecosystems? 41 3.4 Socioeconomic relationships in the Aleutian Islands Ecosystem ......................................41 Unangam Tunuu 41 Communities in the Ecosystem Today 42 Commercial Fisheries 44 Subsistence Fisheries 48 Recreational Fisheries 50 Other Human Activities in the Ecosystem 50 How is the Aleutian Islands different from the surrounding ecosystems? 56 3.5 Management Processes....................................................................................................56 3.5.1 Regulatory Boundaries 56 3.5.2 Management of fisheries 59 Federal Groundfish Fisheries 59 Halibut Fishery 65 Scallop Fishery 65 King and Tanner Crab Fishery 66 State Managed or Parallel Fisheries 67 3.6 Interactions........................................................................................................................68 Thursday, March 08, 2007 2 of 124 DRAFT ALEUTIAN ISLANDS FEP Climate/Physical Interactions 69 Predator-Prey Interactions 70 Endangered Species Interactions 71 Fishing Effects Interactions 72 Other Socioeconomic Activity Interactions 73 4 ECOSYSTEM ASSESSMENT 75 4.1 Risk Assessment...............................................................................................................75 4.1.1 Methodology 76 4.1.2 Summary of risk assessment findings 76 4.1.3 Interpretation of Interaction Scores 79 Climate/physical Interactions 79 Predator-prey Interactions 82 Endangered species Interactions 84 Fishing Effects Interactions 85 Other socioeconomic activity Interactions 88 4.2 Tracking critical interactions ..............................................................................................90 5 MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVES 97 5.1 Management policies for groundfish and crab fisheries ....................................................97 BSAI Groundfish FMP 97 BSAI King and Tanner Crab FMP 98 State of Alaska King and Tanner Crab Management Policy 98 5.2 Meeting and monitoring management objectives..............................................................99 6 IMPLICATIONS FOR HUMAN USE OF ECOSYSTEM 100 7 PRIORITIES 100 8 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COUNCIL 100 9 WHAT IS THE ‘VALUE ADDED’ OF THIS FEP PROCESS? 100 10 REFERENCES AND PREPARERS 100 10.1 References......................................................................................................................100 10.2 Acronyms and Abbreviations...........................................................................................105 10.3 Preparers.........................................................................................................................106 APPENDIX A HISTORY OF NATURAL RESOURCE EXPLOITATION 106 History of Exploitation ...............................................................................................................106 Russian colonial exploitation, 1741-1867 107 History of Commercial Exploitation in the Aleutians .................................................................109 Commercial Exploitation 110 Thursday, March 08, 2007 3 of 124 DRAFT ALEUTIAN ISLANDS FEP APPENDIX B SPECIES LISTED UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT117 APPENDIX C INTERACTION STRENGTH TABLES 118 APPENDIX D FEP AREA INDICATOR DATA 124 Thursday, March 08, 2007 4 of 124 DRAFT ALEUTIAN ISLANDS FEP 1 Introduction 1.1 Purpose and Need The North Pacific Fishery Management Council (hereafter ‘the Council’) is faced with a growing national momentum to adopt an ecosystem approach to fisheries (EAF) management. While many of the Council’s management actions reflect ecosystem considerations, such as conservative harvest levels and spatial and temporal closure areas to protect other species, there is still considerable progress to be made, especially at it pertains to the development of a formal process to integrate ecosystem considerations. After consideration of several possible approaches, much attention has focused on the concept of Fishery Ecosystem Plans (FEPs), and the Ecosystems Principles Advisory Panel (EPAP) touted FEPs as the way to move forward with ecosystem-based fishery management (NOAA 1999). 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 implementation, or a clear and direct relationship to fishery management plans (FMPs). The Council believes that applying a more explicit ecosystem approach to fisheries management than is currently undertaken is the appropriate way to proceed. The purpose of an ecosystem approach to fisheries management is to “plan, develop and manage fisheries in a manner that addresses the multiple needs and desires of societies, without jeopardizing the options for future generations to benefit from a full range of goods and services provided by marine ecosystems (FAO 2003, Garcia et al 2003). The management should thus be adaptive, specified geographically, take account of ecosystem knowledge and uncertainties, consider multiple external influences, and strive to balance diverse societal objectives (NOAA 2004). The Council has drafted the following goal statement to capture its intent with the FEP: The goal of this FEP is to provide enhanced scientific information and measurable indicators to evaluate and promote ecosystem health, sustainable fisheries, and vibrant communities in the Aleutian Islands region. Since 1995 the Council has prepared an Ecosystem Considerations chapter for the annual stock assessment and fishery evaluation reports. Over time, that document has evolved to include an annual ecosystem assessment in addition to tracking indicators and trends for the Alaska ecosystems. There is an ongoing need to improve the way these ecosystem considerations are included in the stock assessment process and the setting of fishing quotas, to reflect in a more holistic approach that addresses indirect and cumulative impacts. In this vein, the Council believes it is appropriate to develop and define a standard for Fishery Ecosystem Plans, starting with the Aleutian Islands as a test case. The Aleutian Islands area has historically been a focus of measures to protect 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. Recent scientific evidence indicates a clear ecological difference between the eastern Bering Sea shelf ecosystem and the central and western Aleutian Islands archipelago west of Samalga Pass (Hunt and Stabeno 2005). 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 all of 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 directly. Applying an ecosystem approach to fisheries management through the implementation of a FEP Thursday, March 08, 2007 5 of 124 DRAFT ALEUTIAN ISLANDS FEP may promote this goal. For these reasons, the Aleutian Islands ecosystem area merits
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