June 3, 2020 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission released revised vessel quotas for the 58-hour opener June 22-24 off the West Coast Monday afternoon.
On Friday, the IPHC released information that all vessel sizes for the 207 permit applications would receive the same quota, much to the surprise of fishermen and fishery managers. By mid-morning Monday, that press release was removed from the Commission’s website.
May 19, 2020 — The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council, in their first-ever special electronic meeting, acted on five requests for emergency rules triggered by the corona virus outbreak, in less than a day last Friday.
Halibut fishermen and fleet associations asked the 11-member council for relief on requirements to make medical quota transfers during the pandemic. Council members agreed to an option that would “allow the temporary transfer of halibut and sablefish IFQ for all quota share holders for the remainder of the 2020 fishing season,” without changing anything else in the program.
March 20, 2020 — The 2020 Pacific halibut season in Alaska got underway on 14 March, with overall catch limits some 9 percent lower than they were last year.
Regulations for the season were adopted at last month’s annual International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) meeting in Seattle, Washington, U.S.A. and were put into effect immediately. These rules are applicable to both the commercial and sport fisheries in Alaska.
February 20, 2020 — The following was released by the Pacific Fishery Management Council:
The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC or Council) and its advisory bodies will meet March 3-9, 2020 in Rohnert Park, California, to address issues related to groundfish, salmon, Pacific halibut, highly migratory species, ecosystem, habitat, and administrative matters. The meeting of the Council and its advisory entities will be held at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Sonoma Wine Country, One Doubletree Drive, Rohnert Park, CA 94928: telephone, 707-584-5466.
Please see the March 3-9, 2020 Council meeting notice on the Council’s website for meeting detail, schedule of advisory body meetings, our new E-Portal for submitting public comments, and public comment deadlines.
Key agenda items for the meeting include Council considerations to:
For further information:
Please contact Pacific Fishery Management Council staff at 503-820-2280; toll-free 1-866-806-7204.
February 12, 2020 — As expected, the International Pacific Halibut Commission set quotas down for 2020 at its annual meeting in Anchorage last week.
Quotas for Pacific halibut will be reduced by just over 5 percent this year as a result of declining stocks. Alaska’s share of the 36.6 million pound total catch is 28.13 million pounds for all user groups. The halibut fishery will open on March 14 and close on Nov. 15.
Industry leaders predicted late in 2019 that the fishery had maxed out its value proposition and likely would not be able to expect a higher dock price to make up for a lower quota.
February 10, 2020 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission adopted a total catch limit of 36.6 million pounds for the 2020 season, slightly less than last year. But the Total Constant Exploitation Yield (TCEY) includes non-commercial removals, so when those are subtracted, a commercial fishery catch limit of 27.48 million lbs remains. That amount includes charter sector allocations, and is about one million pounds less than what was caught last year.
The season will start on March 14 and close November 15, 2020.
February 6, 2020 — For the first time in its 96 year history, the International Pacific Halibut Commission will be setting catch limits for halibut this week with the knowledge that the commercial fleet’s catch has been around 90 percent female, a notably higher proportion than previously thought.
“The Commission has long known that the directed commercial Pacific halibut fishery catches mostly female, but we’ve had indications over time that perhaps the fishery is able to capture even more females than we see on a set line survey relative to males,” said Ian Stewart, a quantitative scientist for IPHC.
Stewart works to develop the stock assessment for Pacific halibut, which IPHC commissioners use to set catch limits for the U.S. and Canada. Knowing what percentage of the catch is female is an important factor that could influence how the stock is managed and thus, what restrictions and limitations are put on fishermen. New data from the IPHC shows that the sex ratio of the commercial catch ranged from 81 percent female in some regions of the Gulf of Alaska to 97 percent female in some regions in the Bering Sea.
“For conservation purposes we track female spawning biomass. And in order to understand that we need to know not only how many females are out there, but how many we’re catching in a given year,” Stewart said.
Biologists with IPHC use setline surveys fishing the same gear in the same places with the same bait year after year to estimate trends in the population and collection biological information including size, age and sex.
December 6, 2019 — Lower catches for Pacific halibut are in the forecast for the foreseeable future.
That was the message from the International Pacific Halibut Commission at its November meeting in Seattle. The commission oversees halibut stock research and sets catch limits for nine fishing regions ranging from northern California to British Columbia to the Bering Sea.
There are fewer of the prized flatfish (down 4 percent), they weigh less (down 5 percent) and no big pulses appear to be coming into the stock, according to the grim summary of the 2019 halibut fishery. The assessment included the results of summer-long surveys at nearly 1,370 fishing stations, including 89 added to the Central Gulf of Alaska, the biggest halibut fishing hole.
The numbers of spawning halibut also appeared to continue their decline over the past year, said the commission’s lead scientist Ian Stewart.
The commission calculates the amount of removals of halibut over 26 inches for commercial, recreational, sports charter, subsistence and bycatch in other fisheries, called a total constant exploitation yield. For 2019, the coastwide TCEY was 38.61 million pounds. The decline was projected, Stewart said.
“This has been predicted for several years. This is projected to continue for all 2020 [Total Constant Exploitation Yields] greater than approximately 18.4 million pounds,” Stewart said. “It’s essentially the breakeven point over the next three years. So, we’re looking at a period of relatively low productivity for the Pacific halibut stock over the next three years.”
November 29, 2019 — SEAFOOD NEWS — It has taken a few years, but it is likely the West Coast directed commercial halibut fishery will be longer than a 10-hour season in 2020.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council in November approved a 3-day fishery for the non-tribal fishery in 2020, starting at 8 a.m. on the first day and concluding at 6 p.m. on the third day. The season would begin on the fourth Monday in June 2020 and subsequent periods would be scheduled as necessary to achieve the allowable catch level. It’s now up to the International Pacific Halibut Commission to approve.
This change is a critical first step in a transition to the U.S. taking over management of the fishery from the IPHC. The IPHC has proposed the change for the last few years.
The IPHC — and industry — voiced concerns in the past about the safety of the 10-hour season openings. Fishermen are keen to fish the lucrative 10-hour opening, despite the weather.
Going into the November PFMC meeting, suggestions for the status quo fishery and a 5-day fishery were on the table. Industry members said they would prefer a 5-day season, even though the individual vessel limits would likely be lower since the fleet would be afforded more time to catch the overall quota and attainment would be very likely.
However, the PFMC’s Enforcement Consultants, consisting of U.S. Coast Guard and state fish and wildlife law enforcement, proposed keeping the status quo, 10-hour fishery. A 5-day season would stretch enforcement beyond its targeted enforcement duties and officers would have to depend instead on spot checks and random patrols.
The Council motion to approve the 3-day fishery was unanimous. The IPHC will consider approving it at its annual meeting in February.
This story was originally posted on SeafoodNews.com, a subscription site. It is reprinted with permission.
November 27, 2019 — Expect lower halibut catches on the Pacific Coast of North America in 2020 and beyond, based on the presentation given Monday at the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) meeting, in Seattle, Washington, by lead scientist Ian Stewart.
Based on a report by Alaska Fish Radio, Stewart — who was summarizing the outlook for commercial halibut fisheries from Northern California, in the US, and British Columbia, Canada, to the Bering Sea of Alaska — said:
“In short, the model survey trends as you’ve seen from the previous presentations are down both in numbers and weight per unit of effort. And what we’ve seen from the commercial fishery’s CPUE (catch per unit of effort) is we have mixed trends, however relatively flat at the coast-wide levels with some brighter spots and some not so good spots across the coast.”
Stewart said the central Gulf of Alaska (Area 3A) showed the biggest decreases in all measures based, but added that the spawning biomass of the coastwide Pacific halibut stock decreased from 2018 to 2019, as previously predicted.