As reported last month here on Deckboss, the scientific staff of the International Pacific Halibut Commission is making some tough recommendations on catch limits for the upcoming season, including a 47 percent cut for Southeast Alaska (Area 2C).
The six-member commission is meeting Jan. 25-28 in Victoria, British Columbia, to consider these recommendations.
One Sitka-based commercial fishing group, the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association, says it was "staggered" by the staff recommendations and has provided these thoughtful comments to the commissioners.
Among other things, the organization says it can't understand the 47 percent cut in Area 2C, and adds that "constantly changing harvest policies" are undermining stakeholder confidence in halibut management.
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7 comments:
Well done that is the first sensible recommendations that i have read.
How about a little cheese, with their whine. Poor commerical fishers, cannot get a break, always blame someone else. No one promised Halibut quota share holders a set amount of "harvestable" pounds each year.
Well, yes they were promised a set amount of quota. Trouble is the charter fleet has over caught their allocation for several years taking what was not their's. As a result of the chart sectors over havesting the IPHC has reduced our halibut catch to conserve on the resourse. Stupid greedy charter boats taking food from the mouths of my children and my crews children for years.
Charter fishers are commercial fishers. Selling a limit of halibut for cash is a commercial operation. Should never have been allowed to come carpet bagging into the fishery in the first place.
You can complicate the formula to take into account for all the variables, but it comes down to two constants. How many fish are actually in the water and how many fish are "all" the gear types really taking out of the total biomass. You have to be able to reconcile those two numbers and until you admit to and account for "every pound", no formula will work....
The IPHC is punishing all of 2C for the charter excesses. Can't say that I blame them, either, from an inter-state or international point of view. Get your shit together.
As much as I hate to admit it, I sympathize somewhat with the SE longliners. Survey WPUE in SE went down but other areas' survey WPUE went down more, yet IPHC staff did not recommend anywhere near as severe a cut in these areas despite worse surveys.
But I am sick of hearing about "catchability" which proponents use to explain how a bad survey really means lots of halibut. Beleiving this concept should cause their heads to pop if there was anything in them.
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