The scientific staff of the International Pacific Halibut Commission has released its recommended catch limits for the 2010 season, and the news is demoralizing.
The overall limit of 48.7 million pounds is 10 percent lower than this year's limit.
If the commission goes with the staff recommendations, it'll mark the second consecutive year we'll see a 10 percent cut.
Southeast Alaska (Area 2C), already pounded in recent years, is in line for a painful 26 percent reduction.
The state's richest halibut hole, Southcentral Alaska (Area 3A), could see a cut of nearly 8 percent.
Here's a full rundown of recommended limits in all regulatory areas, including those off the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska:
Area 2A — 760,000 pounds, down 20 percent
Area 2B — 6.6 million pounds, down 13.6 percent
Area 2C — 3.7 million pounds, down 26 percent
Area 3A — 20 million pounds, down 7.9 percent
Area 3B — 9.9 million pounds, down 9.2 percent
Area 4A — 2.3 million pounds, down 8.6 percent
Area 4B — 2.2 million pounds, up 15.5 percent
Area 4CDE — 3.3 million pounds, down 6.1 percent
Will anything ever be done about trawl bycatch? It is about 25% of the Catch Limit!!
ReplyDeleteIs there any indication of what they will do next year? Are they expecting another reduction?
ReplyDeleteSo I guess this is another nail in the trophy case of how great the effectiveness in the modeling of the Total Allowable Catch for Halibut, where the % of harvest is deemed sustainable.
ReplyDeleteSo I guess that adherence to the % used is spot on, and won't lead to large reductions in the TAC from year to year.
So I guess that goes the same for the sustainability of the TAC for the nation's largest fishery, the Bering Sea pollock - nowhere in sight do I see declining TAC.
I guess bycatch for halibut isn't really an issue, cause most of the pounds are really small sized fish, so the 10 million pounds or so of really small halibut fish catch year after year will have no bearing on the numbers of larger fish in subsequent years.
Let's just focus on the poundage caught and disregard the numbers or age class of fish caught from year to year, cause pounds are a lot easier to deal with in terms of our models that rely on overall biomass.
Trawlers need to be observed 100% when gear on the bottom. We need to start playing with real numbers not numbers collected from 1/3 coverage. While were at it lets make observer coverage species specific with no more carry forward days while pelagic trawling.
ReplyDeleteTrawlers will not be happy until they kill the Gulf of AK like they have done on the west coast/ Gulf of Mex./east coast. Many of the same lineages continue the destructive fishing practices to the detriment of small coastal fixed gear fleets. It blows wind that these fishers accept their dirty deeds as an acceptable cost of doing business.
ReplyDeleteTrawlers should be held accountable for their willful wanton waste of the USA fish resource they discard(See You Tube-excessive trawl bycatch). Are these draggers wired wrong where they think they are entitled to their wasteful ways? How many more oceans must be destroyed before their kind understand?
ReplyDeleteDon't you just Love Ted Stevens!
ReplyDelete"Converting" Senator Magnusen's Act, into a Factory Trawler?
boo-hoo i hate trawlers, they're killing everything, ruining the ocean, not enough observer coverage :( How much observer coverage do you guys have? How clean is long-lining really? Hmm easy to SAY it's clean when there are no numbers...Screw science, you saw one youtube video now you know it all. By the way the next time you're looking for a job, trawlers pay 8% of the gross, they don't cut 40% off the top before crewshares and since you do all of your bitching anonymously you might have a shot. You morons are defending the ones who are really screwing you, it's not us.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want dirty trawler money passing through your hands, you need to move away from Kodiak, probably out of AK. Almost all of us live here year round which is more than I can say for halibut fishermen.
Pardon me, but this is one longliner who has lived in Alaska more than 40 years, runs a clean operation and pays his deckhands 10% of gross. NO deductions, just 10% of the fish ticket bottom line. What happened to people respectfully airing their views? Moron? Look in the mirror.
ReplyDeleteWhile I applaud you for paying your crew fairly, you have to admit you are unique.
ReplyDeleteAs for respectfully airing views, take a look at the rest of this site; it is plagued with ignorance and hatred towards the trawl fleet. But I guess that's why it was set up, to respectfully air views as long as your views are respectful towards the fixed gear fishermen and not necessarily towards the trawl fishermen.
More smoke and mirrors from Curt and his minions..first reaction is always to deflect what is really going on out on the grounds in respect to trawling. As I watched you tow right through the tanner crab grounds(summer 2009) I wondered why you think you are entitled to behave like this. True that all users have bycatch some leaving a very large footprint.
ReplyDeleteDecember NPFMC newsletter page 9. Trawl sector attempting to dumb down the mortality rates of halibut to benefit Amendment 80 vessels so they may fully utilize flatfish TAC. Watch this one close...
ReplyDeleteFYI on page 9 as well you will find under Staff Tasking that the council has directed staff to prepare discussion paper on the process for changing regulations regarding the halibut PSC limits in the GOA and BSAI. It is true then what Kodiak trawl reps have been saying? Whispers are that the play is in motion to get additional halibut bycatch for the GOA. OH MY GOD..what next