For next season, Alaska's charter halibut limits will remain much as they've been -- with a slight improvement in Southeast. Maybe.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in Anchorage on Sunday, voted to maintain the status quo for next year in the northern Gulf of Alaska and Cook Inlet. At the same time, they gave Southeast charter anglers a slot limit that allows them to keep halibut less than 45 inches -- a fish generally in the 40-to-45-pound range -- or longer than 68 inches, typically a big flatfish of at least 150 pounds.
The regulation is designed to protect prime spawning halibut between 50 and 150 pounds. This summer, the Southeast fishery labored under a limit of one fish less than 37 inches, and because of that the Alaska Department of Fish and Game reported the average size of the catch fell to 9.4 pounds. Charter operators said the size limit was killing them. Some clients reportedly canceled fishing trips to the region. Others, who'd booked trips during the winter only to find a new regulation in place by summer, said they wouldn't be coming back, charter operators said.
Not many people want to spend thousands of dollars to travel to catch one dinky halibut, they told the council. The message was apparently heard. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council, an organization dominated by commercial fishing interests that advises the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on regulations for fishing in U.S. coastal waters off Alaska, approved the interim 2012 regulations on a voice vote without objection.
The action, however, still requires International Pacific Halibut Commission approval. The commission is a U.S.-Canada treaty organization that sets catch quotas for both nations. Halibut are regulated by treaty because they are highly migratory. The Gulf of Alaska off the mouth of Cook Inlet is particularly important because research indicates it may be the nursery for all West Coast halibut, and the Commission is concerned that the halibut stock is in a perilous state.
There are plenty of fish, scientists say, but a severe shortage of spawning-size halibut. The commercial fishery is focused on spawning-size fish, and they make up the lion's share of the catch in the sport fisheries, too. Commission staff has recommended drastic cuts in the halibut quota for what's known as Area 3A, which includes such popular sport fishing hubs as Homer, Seward and Valdez. Earlier this year, the staff suggested a quota of 5.3 million pounds of halibut.
The sport fishery alone now catches more than half that much, and the reported commercial landings to date for 2011 amount to about 14.3 million pounds.
The commission is set to meet in Anchorage next month. It must ultimately approve any North Pacific Council recommendations. If the commission wants a drastic cut in the overall quota, commercial halibut fisheries will be devastated, and they will only be hit harder if the sport halibut limit remains at two fish of any size, as the North Pacific Council recommended.
The council met Monday in Anchorage to consider what it has called a "catch sharing plan'' for the charter fishery. The plan, as originally written, would require charter businesses to share the pain with commercial fishermen when halibut stocks shrink.
It was to have been implemented next season and was expected to reduce the 3A charter limit to one fish per day. Halibut charters protested that the council had failed the consider the economic impacts of halving the limits for charter fisheries, and federal officials eventually concluded there were so many unanswered questions swirling around the plan that the council would need to reconsider.
Contact Craig Medred at craig(at)alaskadispatch.com