The battle for Alaska's halibut will be discussed by a government-sanctioned committee of charter-boat skippers and lodge owners on Wednesday in Anchorage. Meeting under the auspices of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC), they will mull possible ways to manage halibut catches by guided anglers.
Earlier this year, the council asked the Fisheries Service of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to impose a "catch-share plan" on the guided anglers. It would have cut the charter-angler bag limit to a fish a day, half the existing limit of two halibut -- and half of what anglers fishing without guides could keep.
Halibut charters operators immediately cried foul, saying the one-fish plan was likely to put a bunch of them out of business and protesting that NOAA had no idea what economic impacts to expect. NOAA then balked and sent the plan back to that Council, saying further consideration and an economic study might be in order. The council's Halibut Management Implementation Committee will meet from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. in New Federal Building Conference Room 154 in Anchorage to consider management options outlined in a 15-page report from Northern Economics, Inc., a consultant.
The report notes the Council's distaste for an economic study:
The Council is required to prepare rigorous, peer reviewed economic analyses for each change to halibut fishery regulations. ... (They require) a very specific and complex set of economic analyses that captures the net national benefits and defines local and regional economic effects. The results of such an analysis would be highly controversial and the analysis would have to be redone whenever inputs into the analysis change (e.g., fish prices, angler demand, energy prices). Collection of these data would be costly, and the time lag between collection of the data and completion of the analysis likely would mean the results are outdated when the analysis is published.
Some sport-fishing groups have charged that the Council is opposed to a study for fear it might show that pound-for-pound halibut produce far greater economic benefits for Alaska when caught in the charter fishery than in the commercial fishery. An old study reached that conclusion and suggested that the best thing for local economies might be grant the recreational halibut fishery about 25 percent of the annual catch with the rest going to the commercial fisheries.
Just published data from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game indicates the recreational rod-and-reel fisheries accounted for about 13 percent of the halibut catch in 2010. About 60 percent of those fish were caught by anglers who took advantage of charters. The management implementation committee will be chaired by Ed Dersham, a former charter operator from Anchor Point on the Kenai Peninsula. Now an Anchorage resident, he is the lone member of the Council charged with representing the interests of recreational anglers.
The meeting is open to the public. The agenda says discussion will focus on "potential management measures that could replace the most restrictive measure under the proposed halibut catch sharing plan." That may entail "recommendations for the Council to consider as alternative management approaches to the bag limit of one fish...'' Those recommendations would then to go the North Pacific council for consideration at a December meeting.
Northern Economics has suggested committee members might want to discuss limiting the number of trips individual charter boats can make in a day, setting annual harvest limits for all anglers, imposing various sorts of size restrictions on halibut caught on sport gear, or ordering various in-season fishing restrictions.
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com