Norton Sound CDQ swaps yellowfin and flathead sole for rock sole in the Bering Sea

A Bering Sea flatfish quota swap is on the books for the Community Development Quota fleet. National Marine Fisheries Service information bulletin IB 26-40, issued Oct. 1, 2026, says Alaska Region Administrator Jonathan Kurland approved an exchange requested by the Norton Sound Economic Development Corporation. Unused flathead sole and yellowfin sole total allowable catch allocated to CDQ is being traded for rock sole CDQ acceptable-biological-catch reserves in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

The numbers: flathead sole TAC and CDQ drop by 200 metric tons, and yellowfin sole TAC and CDQ drop by 700 metric tons, with those amounts moved into CDQ ABC reserves. Rock sole TAC and CDQ rise by 900 metric tons, and the rock sole CDQ ABC reserve falls by the same amount. The action revises Tables 13 and 15 of the final 2026 and 2027 BSAI groundfish harvest specifications (91 FR 11750, March 10, 2026). The Federal Register notice is the Oct. 1, 2026, exchange rule.

NMFS said the swap lets the CDQ fishery take more of its rock sole harvest. It does not lift any directed-fishing closure or any ban on retaining a groundfish species. Closures already in effect stay in effect. This is a different action from the Winter Herring Savings Area pollock closure and the western Gulf of Alaska Pacific ocean perch closure.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: NOAA Fisheries — IB 26-40 (Oct. 1, 2026). Rule text: Federal Register — Exchange of flatfish in the BSAI.