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Processing
Alaska pollock, cod, sablefish, and sole are processed both at-sea, in catcher-processors (also called factory-trawlers or freezer-trawlers) and floating processors (also called motherships), and in on-shore plants. Halibut are only processed on shore. All of these processors are careful to extract maximum value from the harvest and minimize waste. Most of these companies process the byproducts (skin, bones, viscera, etc.) into protein meal, bone meal, and oil, for use in industrial applications such as fertilizers, and as food supplements for humans and animals. New applications are constantly being investigated.

The NPFMC has enacted regulations to divide the harvest of many whitefish species between companies that operate at-sea and companies that operate on-shore. This is to strike a balance among many factors, such as efficiency of operation, quality of product, distribution of fishing pressure, and the economic and social health of coastal Alaska fishing communities.

Alaska is a very big place with very few people. Its coastal communities are very far apart and they are very small, with rarely over 2,000 year-round residents per town. Aside from commercial fishing and seafood processing there is little other economic opportunity in many of these communities. This explains why these coastal Alaskans, many of whom are Alaska Natives, are so keenly interested in the health and sustainability of the fisheries, and in the long-term economic benefits that support their communities.

In 1992, the NPFMC initiated the Community Development Quota (CDQ) program. The CDQ program grants ownership share rights in several Alaska whitefish stocks to non-profit organizations that represent the small coastal communities of the Bering Sea region. These CDQ shares are normally 7.5% of the annually adjusted TACs, and are divided among the communities for the benefit of their residents. The successes of the CDQ program include —

• fisheries-based economic opportunity for residents of rural communities
• increased sense of stewardship of the resource
• increased participation by rural coastal Alaskans in the management of the fisheries and companies that usethese resources
• greater pride among Alaskans, based on their ability to plan and realize their futures