Mr. Chair, I'll begin by responding that bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands commercial fisheries is identified through a highly regulated monitoring program that's administered through state and federal agencies in Alaska. The specific requirements of all vessels fishing groundfish, which are also described as pollock or cod in the Bering Sea, is that each vessel must have at least one independent observer who documents catch that's brought on board vessels that are actively participating in fishing activities. The non-target species are enumerated and identified by species, and genetic tissue samples are taken for further analysis to determine the stock of origin in the case of Pacific salmon.
With respect to our degree of confidence in the bycatch reporting in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands groundfish fisheries by the United States, I would classify it as extremely high on the basis of the rigour and the specific requirements of those monitoring programs. The analyses and the results presented on bycatch information are provided by U.S. state representatives from Alaska through the international Yukon River Panel process and are published as a component of an annual publication produced by the Yukon River Panel's joint technical committee.