Saturday, May 17, 2014

Ho, look at that halibut bycatch!

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is scheduled to meet June 2-10 in Nome.

One item on the agenda is this report from the International Pacific Halibut Commission on halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

Deckboss perused the paper, and frankly came away with only one useful fact:

BSAI halibut bycatch was an estimated 5.2 million pounds in 2013.

Sound like a lot? Actually, this was the second-lowest level of halibut bycatch since 1985 (see Table 2 on page 20).

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That much halibut by catch is absolutely unacceptable when the IFQ holders have been cut and the stocks are concerning. NOAA and the IPHC need to act immediately and quit tolerating this travesty! Same with the King salmon bycatch. Make them pigs accountable!!!

Anonymous said...

Biomass decreased (due in part to bycatch) and the bycatch decreases. I know those are the best numbers they have, but just how accurate are they?

Anonymous said...

As long as there are "observer tows", those numbers will never be accurate.