Saving Seafood

At the Center of the IPHC Impasse is Apportionment, A Word No One Uses Any More

February 6, 2018 — SEAFOOD NEWS — The failure to reach agreement on catch limits for Pacific halibut last month had roots in a 2006 decision by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) to shift from managing halibut area by area to a single coastwide assessment.

The change was triggered by data from tagging studies that showed significant migration between distinct geographical areas. There was evidence to support ‘resident’ populations, but new data showed complex migration patterns that had not been understood before.

So the scientists, who had used a closed-area assessment up to then, changed to a coastwide assessment to measure total biomass, then apportioned catch limits based on area surveys and geographical size.

It was a significant change in IPHC’s harvest policy and called for a stock assessment workshop and an independent evaluation from the Center for Independent Experts in June of 2006.

CIE’s Dr. Chris Francis, an independent evaluator and stock assessment expert, commented on the biggest snag he saw with the change.

“The problem for me (and for the IPHC, I believe) is that the coast-wide model requires some way of apportioning the estimated current biomass amongst the regulatory areas. It is important to distinguish between accepting the coast-wide model over the closed-area, and accepting the area-apportionment scheme,” Francis said.

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ALASKA: Suggested catches of Pacific halibut decrease this year

January 29, 2018 — As expected, catches of Pacific halibut will decrease for this year, and likely into the foreseeable future.

Following an increase in catches last year for the first time in several decades, the International Pacific Halibut Commission on Friday set a “suggested” coastwide catch for 2018 at 28.03 million pounds, a 10.7 percent reduction. Alaska’s share could be 20.52 million pounds, a drop of 2.1 million pounds from 2017.

The numbers could decline further, as for the first time in memory since the IPHC began its oversight of the stocks in 1923, the six commissioners were not able to agree on catch allocations for the eight halibut fishing regions.

Halibut catch limits are determined by summer surveys at more than 1,200 stations from Oregon to the Aleutians.

“There was agreement that the general halibut stock is in decline, but no consensus on what the catches should be. Due to this impasse, the commissioners made suggestions for 2018 for their own countries,” said Tom Gemmell, executive director of the Juneau-based Halibut Coalition.

Read the full story at the Anchorage Daily News

Marine Scientist Follows Hot Fish as They Move to Cooler Waters

November 30, 2016 — Warming oceans have fish on the move, and one man is in hot pursuit.

That man, Rutgers University marine biologist Malin Pinsky, has tracked fish species all over North American waters to learn where they’re headed in search of cooler conditions.

Recently, he’s seen lobsters nearly disappear from Long Island Sound, driven out by disease and a series of warm summers. The delicacies are thriving in the cooler Gulf of Maine, but that may be temporary: Water temperatures there are rising faster than anywhere else in the North Atlantic. Pinsky has also observed Black sea bass, traditionally plentiful off Virginia, start to relocate to the Gulf of Maine and the waters off the New Jersey coast. And out west, Pacific halibut and arrowtooth flounder in the eastern Bering Sea off Alaska have shifted north toward the Arctic.

“It’s not one species in one place or a few species in a limited area,” Pinsky says of the moving populations. “It’s actually hundreds of species in North America shifting toward cooler waters, and that’s significant.”

The changes pose major questions for fishermen and fishery managers. As species move, will fishermen relocate their businesses to follow? How do fishery managers set rules when fish have moved to new areas where they may be more susceptible to overfishing? And will species such as lionfish, which are invasive in the Atlantic Ocean and thrive in warm Southern waters, suddenly appear in force farther north along the Atlantic coast? Even more confounding is the effect of temperature changes on species such as corals that have difficulty relocating to a more suitable place.

Read the full story at National Geographic

ALASKA: Pacific halibut harvest numbers increased this year

November 11th, 2016 — As Alaska’s iconic halibut fishery wraps up this week, stakeholders are holding their breath to learn if catches might ratchet up slightly again in 2017. Meanwhile, prices for hard to get shares of the halibut catch are jaw-dropping.

The halibut fishery ends on Nov. 7 for nearly 2,000 longliners who hold IFQs (Individual Fishing Quotas) of halibut. The Alaska fishery will produce a catch of more than 20 million pounds if the limit is reached by the fleet. Last year, the halibut haul was worth nearly $110 million at the Alaska docks.

For the first time in several decades the coastwide Pacific halibut harvest numbers increased this year by 2.3 percent to nearly 30 million pounds. Along with Alaska, the eight-month fishery includes the Pacific coast states and British Columbia.

The feeling that the halibut resource is stabilizing and recovering after a long decline has upped the ante for shares of the catch. The fact that the dock price again hovered in the $6 to $7 a pound range all season at major ports also has fanned interest. It holds especially true for shares of Southeast Alaska fish.

“Fishermen say they’re seeing some of the best fishing they’ve ever seen in their lives there, bigger fish, better production and you see that reflected in IFQ prices,” said Doug Bowen of Alaska Boats and Permits in Homer.

The quota shares are sold in various categories, and the asking price for prime shares in Southeast waters has reached $70 per pound!

Read the full story at the Petersburg Pilot 

Flounders’ Eyes Face Skyward. How Do They See the Ocean Floor?

August 15, 2016 — For flatfishes, you’d think things would always be looking up.

These quick-change artists have eyes on top of their heads, yet marvelously mimic the surfaces they sit on. This prompted Clayton Louis Ferrara to ask Weird Animal Question of the Week: “If flatfish have eyes on the top of their heads, how do they see what’s going on on the ocean floor?”

Flatfish, found all over the world, range from the angelfin whiff, which is about three inches (eight centimeters) to the Pacific halibut, which can get up to around nine feet (three meters) long. This fish group includes species familiar to seafood lovers—not only halibut, but flounder, sole, and turbot.

All flatfish have eyes on the end of stalks, so they pop out of the head “kind of like the eyes we saw in cartoons—ba-boing!” says George Burgess of the Florida Museum of Natural History.

Read the full story at National Geographic