Pollock Fishing Description

The 1999 Bering Sea pollock fishing season marked the first year of the Pollock Conservation Cooperative (PCC). Under the PCC agreement, nine pollock catcher/processor companies agree to limit their individual catches to a specific percentage of that sector's overall quota allowance, thereby allowing the fishery to be conducted at a more rational, deliberate pace. Since its inception, the PCC has helped reduce over capacity in the catcher/processor fleet and enabled participants to produce 50 percent more fish products on a per pound basis than the fleet produced in 1998 under an "Olympic-style," race for fish."

The PCC was modeled after the Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative (PWCC); a cooperative formed in 1997 by at-sea processing companies participating in the whiting fishery off the West Coast.