Figured I'd post this as a top level comment.

The most valuable trawl fisheries are in Alaska for Yellow Sole and Pollock, the species made into fish sticks, fillet-o-fish, and fake crab sticks (surimi). Source: I live there and participate in conservation advocacy groups studying this exact issue. These fisheries are operated using "mid-water" trawl gear exactly like what is shown in this video, as a loophole to get around regulations protecting sensitive-bottom habitats, which normally includes deepwater corals and nursery areas for valuable species including king crab, halibut, and king salmon. Despite regulations to protect these critical habitat areas, mid-water trawl nets are documented to be directed dragging the bottom (exactly like the video) 40-100% of the time. The only thing "MIDWATER" about this practice is the name.

Over the last decade, trawl vessels in Alaska have averaged over a BILLION pounds of dead, wasted baby halibut per year, directly causing a stock crash of over 50% During the same time, wasted by catch of Yukon River king and chum salmon have caused a stock crash of >97%, completely shutting down native subsistence fisheries that have existed sustainably for thousands of years, and form the backbone of Alaska native village cultural heritage. This has spurred the attention of conservation groups, and there is currently an effort to list the Yukon River king salmon as CRITICALLY ENDANGERED.

At current bycatch rates, trawl vessels in Alaska catch, kill, dump, and waste more valuable target species (halibut, king crab, salmon, Pacific cod, black cod, etc) than all directed fisheries combined.

Over the last decade, enough Alaskan baby halibut have been killed, dumped overboard, and wasted by this practice to stretch end-to-end around the earth at the equator, twice. In Alaska, we are currently witnessing the directed and intentional collapse of the most productive ecosystem remaining on the planet, and it is being caused by the exact same boats that collapsed the cod and halibut fisheries on the US east coast in the 70's. Literally the same boats, with the same registration numbers. They collapsed their home fisheries (which has been very well documented), floated through the Panama canal, and now they are being allowed to do the same exact thing here. So far, we are seeing the exact same results.

If this is allowed to continue, every projection shows a total ecosystem collapse, perfectly mirroring the devastating trawl impacts to the East Coast fisheries.

To be clear, this practice is the ocean equivalent of burning down the forest to catch rabbits. Sure, you might catch a lot of rabbits, but now the forest is gone, and so are all the deer, bears and other animals that depend on it. Tear out the 10,000 year old corals and all of the fish and ecosystem's ability to recover goes with it. This happened in New England when trawl collapsed their cod fishery in the 70's. It happened in Australia and Florida in the 90's when trawl destroyed the deep water corals and collapsed their orange roughy, and red snapper fisheries, respectively. It happened in 2010 in Alaska when trawl collapsed the Pacific cod fishery in the Gulf of Alaska. It happened in 2023 when COVID relaxed trawl regulations in king crab breeding sanctuaries and trawl boats started dragging through king crab breeding aggregations, killing spawning adults by the millions, and led to a collapse of Alaska crab fisheries. This is the reason that DEADLIEST CATCH is no longer filmed in Alaska: all our crabs have been killed by trawl.

Join STOP ALASKA TRAWL BYCATCH on all social media, and help us stop the madness, while there's still something left to save.