Saving Seafood

Alaska commercial halibut fishermen get big boost in catch limit

January 29, 2017 — More Pacific halibut will be going to market this year due to an overall boost in harvests for the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska. The coast-wide limit of 31.4 million pounds reflects a 5.1 percent increase and, for the first time in decades, not a single fishing region faces a decline its allowable catch.

The heartening news was released Friday by the International Pacific Halibut Commission, overseer of the stocks since 1923.

Halibut catch limits are determined by summer surveys at more than 1,200 stations from Oregon to the Aleutians. In 2016, the results showed the stock had remained stable over a span of three years, although the fish remained small for their ages.

Read the full story at the Alaska Dispatch News

Strong halibut catches in Alaska leading to higher quotas

July 1, 2016 — After years of slashed quotas, the Alaskan halibut fishery is enjoying a second year of growth in 2016.

The 2016 quota share commercial halibut fisheries opened on 19 March with a fleet-wide quota of 18.16 million pounds. The quota is up from 17.93 million pounds in 2015 and 16.75 million pounds in 2014.

Quota improvements have also been seen in British Columbia, Canada. The 2016 B.C. quota is 6.20 million pounds up from 5.91 million pounds in 2015 and 5.79 million pounds in 2014.

“We’ve been on a bit of decrease since the peak of the halibut stock abundance in the late 1990s, but last year [2015] saw the first year of an increase in quite a number of years,” said Bruce Leaman, the executive director of the International Pacific Halibut Commission, the public international organization responsible for managing the fisheries.

IPHC released its latest landing report on 21 June, 2016, and to that date, catch rates have been similar to last year. Alaskan fishermen have landed 8.8 million pounds of halibut, or 48 percent of the 2016 commercial fishery catch limit. At this same date last year 8.8 million pounds had been harvested, representing 49 percent of the 2015 catch limit.

“[The fishing is] about on par with what we’ve seen other years in terms of how quickly the quota is being caught,” Leaman said.

He went on to predict a lull in halibut landings during the summer as many vessels leave off halibut fishing to pursue salmon and other species caught during shorter management periods.

Read the full story at Seafood Source