Friday at noon is the start of the B-season for pollock. Unlike the A-season, which focuses on pollock roe, the B-season harvests the fish for its fast food and surimi potential.
The quota for B-season is over 778,000 metric tons -- which are split between four groups -- AFA onshore, catcher processors, motherships, and CDQ. And that’s only a part of the total allowable catch (TAC) of 1.3 million metric tons for the entire year. National Marine Fisheries Services Krista Milani says the yearly TAC has slowly been creeping up.
She says typically fishermen close out the B-season by early October, but because the season is co-opted its hard to predict. By regulation, the B-season closes on November 1st, 2016.