NSEDC is proposing to harvest its allocation of Atka mackerel CDQ (about 200 metric tons in the western area of the Aleutian Islands, 300 metric tons in the central and 105 metric tons in the eastern) using the 296-foot trawler-processor, F/V Seafreeze Alaska, which is owned by Seafreeze Alaska LP and operated by U.S. Seafood LLC of Seattle, Washington. The vessels will employ bottom trawl fishing gear to take the Atka mackerel CDQ during allowable seasons outside of the open access fishery in a October-November timeframe. The fish will be processed on-board the vessels and marketed through Ocean Peace Inc. and U.S. Seafood and their brokers. The fishery will be conducted in allowable regulatory areas in the western, central and eastern districts of the Aleutian Islands management area.

The Atka mackerel fishery has been considerably more difficult to conduct over the past several years. The TAC has been substantially reduced and fishing areas have been segregated and limited with the imposition of Steller sea lion restrictions. These changes have made for more difficult operation of the CDQ fishery and less profitable for both the company and NSEDC. With the bycatch limitations of the fishery of the other species category and various rockfish species groupings, NSEDC reserves this CDQ fishery until the last of the year to ensure that adequate bycatch is available to harvest the mackerel.

Bycatch of other CDQ species in the Atka mackerel fishery primarily consists of Pacific cod, northern rockfish, POP, and other species with lesser amounts of Greenland turbot and flatfish and runs about 30-40% of the total harvest. Products from the Atka mackerel fishery are primarily H&G fish frozen in 40-pound blocks.