Beyond every nation's two-hundred-mile zone lies a patch of the Bering Sea about fifty-five thousand square nautical miles across, fished by foreign factory trawlers pushed out of American and Soviet waters. The pollock catch peaked near 1.5 million metric tons in 1989 and fell to about ten thousand by 1992, and a 1994 treaty bars directed fishing until the stock recovers. More than thirty years later it has not.
Who's who
- Kevin M. BaileyNOAA biologist who wrote An Empty Donut Hole
- James Ianelli+1 more episodeNOAA stock assessment scientist for Bogoslof pollock
- David BentsonAlaska fisheries manager and U.S. negotiator in 1991 talks
- Don Young+3 more episodesAlaska congressman who sponsored a 1993 pollock conservation resolution
- George H. W. Bush+2 more episodesPresident who signed the 1992 enforcement act
- Jon WarrenchukOceana scientist who argued pollock quotas were too high
- Gifford Pinchot+12 more episodesForest Service chief whose maxim is the series thesis
Where it happens
- Donut Hole, Bering SeaHigh-seas pocket where the pollock fishery collapsed
- Bogoslof Island, AlaskaInside the American zone; site of a joint-venture fishery
- Aleutian Basin, Bering SeaDeep basin that held the pollock stock
- Washington, D.C.+31 more episodesWhere the 1994 convention was signed
Timeline
- 1983Japanese scientists report pollock spawning in the Donut Hole
- 1989Donut Hole catch peaks at about 1.45 million metric tons
- 1992Catch falls to about ten thousand metric tons
- August 14, 1992Six nations agree in Moscow to a two-year moratorium
- June 16, 1994Central Bering Sea Pollock Convention signed
- December 8, 1995Convention enters into force
Still debated
The true size of the catch is unknown, since underreporting was suspected. Whether the basin pollock were a self-sustaining stock or overflow from the shelves was never settled, and the cause of the failure to recover is unknown, though overfishing is the accepted cause of the collapse.
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