In the western GOA, which starts around Chignik, things are split up a bit more evenly. The hook-and-line fleet has a combined 21.2 percent of the TAC, while the pot boats have 38 percent, giving the trawl fleet a combined 40.6 percent.

In an effort to increase participation in the jig fishery, the jig portion of the quota comes off the top before the other gear types are figured in. The jig portion is 1 percent of the total allowable catch for the central GOA and 1.5 percent for the western GOA initially, with a stair-step provision to allocate another 1 percent in any given year if jiggers reach 90 percent of their TAC during the federal season, capped at 6 percent. There is a provision to step it back down by 1 percent if 90 percent is not caught for two consecutive years, but it cannot go below the initial allocation.

Another change is the percent caught during the "A" and "B" seasons. The "A" season opens in January, the "B" season in September. Historically, the TAC has been divided 60/40 between the two in order to reduce the impact on endangered Stellar sea lions.

Under the new rules, different gear types have different seasonal allocations, although the overall total removal does maintain the 60/40 split. However, hook-and-line and pot (fixed gear) boats in the central GOA will catch more of their annual allocation in the "A" season, anywhere from 64 to 80 percent depending on vessel size and gear type, while the trawlers will essentially split their allocation evenly between seasons.

In the western GOA, it's the fixed gear boats that have a more even seasonal distribution, from 45 to 55 percent each season, while the trawlers will be catching the bulk of their allocation in the "A" season, just over 72 percent.

Many fishermen are wondering what the fixed allocations by gear type will mean in relation to recent history if they'll be catching less than the previous year once this is put in place. In some cases, the answer is yes, although the small boat, fixed gear fleet generally came out fairly well, at least in the central GOA.

In the initial regulatory impact review published in November, council staff noted that there had been substantial year-to-year variability in catches. In determining which window years to use, they said that averaging across the options or using each sector's best years reduces the disparities among the options somewhat, but there were still strong differences among the options, depending on the range of years selected.

For example, the trawl catcher vessel allocation could have ranged from about 26 percent to 46 percent of the western GOA TAC and 40 percent to 44 percent of the central GOA TAC. Similarly, the pot catcher vessel allocation could have ranged from about 28 percent to 45 percent of the western GOA TAC and 25 percent to 28 percent of the central GOA TAC.

Central GOA pot boats ended up at the high end of that range, although their catch peaked in 2000 at 37.4 percent of the catch. However, the past two years have seen catches of 20.5 percent and 26.9 percent respectively.

However, pot boats in the western GOA fell more to the middle of the range, and landed just over 40 percent of the catch the past two years. Their share of the catch peaked at 63.4 percent in 2004, and they've landed more than 40 percent of the catch in six of the past 10 years.

Although the allocations for pot boats in both areas include catcher-processors, there have not been any deliveries from a catcher-processor fishing with pots since 2001 in the western GOA and 2002 in the central GOA.

The cod TAC for 2010 in the central GOA is 33,986 tons, up from 23,641 tons in 2009. The western GOA cod TAC is 23,254 tons, up from 16,175 tons in 2009.

The full ruling and related materials can be found at www.fakr.noaa.gov/npfmc/.

The University of Alaska's Sea Grant program reports that scientists studying how to hatch and raise large numbers of larval king crab recently received wild adult king crab brood stock for another year of research.

The scientists say three years of research have helped them clear many of the technological and biological hurdles to hatching and raising large numbers of larval crab to the juvenile stage in a hatchery setting.

Understanding the details of hatching and raising king crab in a hatchery is considered by commercial fishermen and researchers as a key step toward providing state fishery managers with the information they need to decide whether hatchery enhancement can help rebuild depleted king crab stocks in waters around the Pribilof Islands and Kodiak Island. Both areas have not had king crab fisheries in many years.

State fishery managers have not yet approved the release of hatchery crab into the wild.

"We have learned a lot in the past three years, and we now believe the technology is there, and that we have a good understanding of rearing requirements," said Ben Daly, research biologist with Alaska Sea Grant.

Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist.