The International Pacific Halibut Commission has set a 2014 catch limit of 27.5 million pounds, an 11 percent cut from last year.
The season will run from March 8 to Nov. 7.
Here's the full breakdown of catch limits by regulatory area.
For comparison, here are last year's limits.
The Catch limits this year include the charter allocation as the CSP in now in effect. The actual commercial harvest is going to be down almost 20 percent(7 million lbs)
ReplyDeleteI am considering taking a loan to buy a subsidized boat/motor to "people propel" my fishing business. Salmon is closed for most of June on the kusko. Area 4 halibut will be cut more than half. How can they let this happen? Who is looking out for the Area 4 halibut fishermans? How can someone make a boat payments under these conditions? I read the news and I know the trends for both have been going down direction for the last couple years.The CDQ People Propel program will cause many to be broke.The CDQ should give fishermans fundings to offset the fisheries disaster instead of giving loans for boats and motors. Why do residents need bigger boats for less fishing? There will be less fish going to the canneries.Less fish=No need for new fishing boats. Such a waste of money. Lets give a big bonus to the people who thought of this program.
ReplyDeleteHow can someone make boat payments 8:14? If you need a subsidized boat and motor, you most likely should not get into the business in the first place.
ReplyDeleteMaking Boat Payments with this commission since 1923...
Sometime's the Commission even discusses the mushy syndrome, shown on many local CDQ Boards.
"Recent analyses of flesh samples by the State of Alaska’s Fish Pathology Lab noted that fish with the condition have large areas of body tissue which are flaccid or jelly-like. The fillets may ooze water and are mushy when cooked. While the cause of the condition is unknown, it is thought to be the result of nutritional deficiencies..."
http://www.iphc.int/research/biology/mushy-halibut.html
Huge cuts again in 3A and westward. The big question now is if things stabilize, or are we headed to full closure, or almost non-existent catch limits, for the directed halibut fishery in the next 5-7 years?
ReplyDeleteAnd what cuts did the draggers get? Nothing as usual.
ReplyDeleteThere goes all my hard earned crewshare $ that we invested in IFQ because we wanted to remain a fishing family. But no one ever said there's stability in this business.Time to get even more creative. Meanwhile trawlers will keep pughing them over the side.
ReplyDeleteWell....
ReplyDeleteNow the directed fishery TAC in the Central Gulf (3A) and Westward (3B and Areas 4) matches the dragger fleet's allowable bycatch. Trawler wastage equals setline harvest.
What's wrong with this picture, Ballsacker?...
C/P Golden Fleece loses its special exemption from observers and ends up with this data:
ReplyDeletehttp://tholepin.blogspot.com/2013/11/failure-of-restructured-observer-program.html
I am sure that with 100% observer coverage in Kodiak that the actual Trawl by catch harvest is far larger than the directed fishing effort……Only one thing to do, give the by catch to the trawlers in the form of IFQ's so that they have value and can be traded among them to maximize that by catch harvest…….Criminal…..Time for 60 minutes to come up and start asking some simply questions…...
ReplyDeleteI'm almost sure that Trawlers, using the 501(c )(13) tax exempt corp could also reduce the costs of observers. Now the groundskeeper may need a little gas for the lawnmower... but of course it could also be purchased tax free....
ReplyDeleteIndividual plots for all trawlers, tax free!
http://www.irs.gov/irm/part4/irm_04-076-021.html
This is great news... Less halibut abundance in area 4 will allow more pollack fishing opportunities with less halibut bycatches around the pribs and to the northwest. This means cleaner fishing in the most productive pollack grounds around zemchug and the mushroom. This will allow for more pollack hauls with less by catches and better roe recovery. Great news for the 2014 Pollack A season. Watch out for those chinooks and chums. Happy fishing!
ReplyDeleteNMFS cuts Gulf dragger observer coverage to less than 15% increasing the financial incentive to "game" or fake the observer coverage.
ReplyDeleteTo explain; the less coverage you have, the less costly it is to waste time taking the observer out on a fairy tail trawl trip so you can get back to business as usual.
Check the tholepin site. The CP Golden Fleece was exempted under the former observer regime and now has 100% coverage.
He cannot now "game" his coverage because it's 100%.
Throw out the 2012 anomaly and his halibut bycatch rate has gone up 900%.
Might this be a problem if this is indicative of what the entire fleet is doing?
Why is it left to a lonely blogger to figure this out when NMFS and IPHC can hire the best biologists and bio-magicians in the world?
while the longline fleet cries about the trawl and dragger bycatch and waste,the charter fleet has stolen the resource they did not deserve!think about it?under the new csp program if the catch levels go back to the historical levels say?3a 20million pounds and 2c 10 million pounds which they never will.the charter catch level in 3a will be over 7 million pounds and in 2c 3.7 million pounds whos the winner?and even if they decide to stop all halibut fishing to rebuild the stocks,the charter fleet will still be out there catching and releaseing halibut!
ReplyDeleteReply to 8:36...
ReplyDeleteNice "red herring", dragger boy...what's your bycatch limit on those?...