Prior to the sablefish IFQ program, some persons were concerned that the IFQ program might lead to substantial changes in the landing patterns relative to the open access fishery. This chapter examines landing patterns over the 1991 to 1995 time period.1 1995 landings are taken from the NMFS-RAM catch file.
Table 8.1-1 provides estimates of sablefish landings over the 1991 to 1995 time period by place of landing. "Alaska landings" means that the fish were first landed to Alaska ports or landed to floating processors within Alaska. "Catcher-processor" means that the fish were harvested and processed onboard the vessel.2 "Other" means that fish were first landed in ports outside of Alaska.
As can be seen, these estimates indicate that the percentage of the 1995 sablefish harvest delivered to Alaska ports is within the range of the percentages observed over the 1991 to 1994 time period. The same is true for the percentage of the 1995 harvest assigned to catcher processors and the percentage of the 1995 harvest delivered to ports outside of Alaska.
Table 8.1-2 provides similar data for the 1995 sablefish catch delivered to Alaska ports or to floaters within Alaska. The Alaska landings are reported by census area or by combination of census areas to preserve confidentiality. The data indicate that there were some changes in sablefish landing patterns within Alaska during 1995.
For example, the 1995 sablefish landings in the Kodiak Borough census area declined to 10.3% of the total Alaska sablefish landings. This was the lowest percentage observed over the 1991 to 1995 time period. In contrast, the 1995 sablefish landings in the Kenai Peninsula census area increased to 24.8% of the total sablefish landings. This was a considerable increase over the 1994 percentage and was the highest percentage observed in this census area since 1991.