7 Factory trawlers have higher bycatch and discard rates than catcher vessels. Our personal experience, as operators of both a factory trawler and catcher boats, is that there is no significant difference. In any event, it is generally recognized that the Alaska pollock fishery is one of the cleanest in the world. The bycatch and waste alluded to in the press and elsewhere do not occur in the Alaska pollock fishery nor or they the result of the fishing activities conducted by the vessels that are the targets of this bill. The bycatch and waste are attributable to the flatfish and cod trawl fisheries, which, incidentally, are conducted by smaller catcher vessels and smaller factory trawlers.
Factory trawlers have lower recovery rates than shoreside processors.
There is again no scientific basis for this comparison. The starting point for determining recovery ratios is the weight of the catch. Physiological changes to the fish during that time inevitably will result in a loss of weight, and hence the appearance of a higher recovery rate. There is however, a strong incentive for shoreside and mother ship processors, who must purchase their catch from catcher vessels, to insure that the catch weights are not over-logged. Large vessels, such as factory trawlers, are a greater threat to the fishery resource than smaller vessels.