Requiring proven bycatch reduction measures like salmon excluders on all pollock vessels.
Require proven salmon bycatch reduction measures, including salmon excluder devices, on pollock vessels.
Occurrences
Evidence
Sullivan's Senate site listed a June 25, 2026 latest-news item titled Sullivan Introduces Bycatch Reduction Act.
The Council reviewed 2025 cooperative and salmon bycatch IPA reports, heard about new IPA measures, and received Chinook genetics reports with no Council action.
The bill would improve data collection, prioritize bycatch-reduction technology, improve electronic monitoring, and fund gear or technology to reduce bycatch and trawl habitat contact.
Sullivan described the bill as increasing technology use to reduce bycatch, starting to examine mandates, improving transparency, and deploying innovative fishing gear.
The Council describes Bering Sea pollock salmon bycatch measures: observer counts, rolling hotspot closures, Chinook hard caps, IPAs, and Amendment 110 abundance-linked caps and IPA requirements.
The Council says salmon excluder devices have been tested under experimental permits and that voluntary use by pollock skippers is increasing.
Assessments
Federal fishery management has meaningful salmon bycatch controls for pollock, including observer monitoring, hard caps, rolling closures, and IPA requirements, so the broader bycatch-reduction goal has partial implementation. But the specific promised mandate for proven salmon excluder devices on pollock vessels is not shown as enacted; current evidence describes excluder use as tested and increasingly voluntary. Sullivan introduced bycatch legislation in 2026 that would fund and advance bycatch-reduction gear, research, monitoring, and technology, but it appears to be an attempt toward the promised mandate rather than delivery of the requirement itself.