Scientists will tackle the mysteries of Bering Sea sharks and the decline of northern fur seals with studies funded by the Pollock Conservation Cooperative Research Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The center, underwritten largely by the pollock fishing industry but supervised by the UAF School of Fisheries and Ocean Sciences, awarded $300,000 in new grants for research into marine life off Alaska’s vast coast.
In pursuit of abundant walleye pollock in the Bering Sea, fishermen inadvertently catch the groundfish’s predators in the same trawls: salmon sharks and sleeper sharks. This bycatch ranges between 400 and 1,400 metric tons per season.
