The International Pacific Halibut Commission has set a 2015 catch limit of 29.2 million pounds, up 6 percent from last year.
The season will run from March 14 to Nov. 7.
Here's the full breakdown of catch limits by regulatory area.
For comparison, here are last year's limits.
Great, let's listen to iphc and immediately require 100% observers on all boats. This ain't west Africa, if you're gonna fish commercially in the modern world in Alaska, you got to be observed. Then count all the bycatch for everybody, no exceptions, so if you hook and line guys bycatch 12 millions of halibut that you throw back, it's 12 million pounds and quit pretending that 11 million of it doesn't count because it's a flat lie-not science- that your dead bycatch magically comes back to life after you rip the hooks out and throw its lifeless halibut body back into the sea. Why is the stock declining- duh- because you are killing 12 million pounds of it to land one million, year after year, and just pretending you aren't. And that's why you refuse to have observers, aka witnesses to your crime, because then you won't be able to keep killing all the halibut without consequence. Halibut and hook and line feels are the worst environmental criminals. Stop them and save the Halibut!!!
ReplyDeleteDoes it really make sense to throw back 12-14 halibut for every 1 halibut you keep? THen pretend 95 of every 100 of those dead halibut you throw back, aren't dead? This fake mortality rate the hook and line fleet uses to pretend they don't have massive bycatch, about double the bycatch that those trawlers take, is killing the halibut fishery. You are by catching and killing about a 3rd of the halibut bio as yourselves, all by yourselves. Even the iphc scientists don't believe that 5% mortality rate but they are afraid of getting fired if they say so.
ReplyDelete^^^sounds like the same guy made both posts.^^^
ReplyDeleteTypical troll comments. Ripping hooks out and throwing lifeless halibut back into the sea? So the hook-and-line fleet has 95% by-catch mortality on released halibut? Really. Feel free to post some facts on that, and, sorry, wild allegations and foaming at the mouth isn't a factual argument.
It sounds to me "Anonymous", Feb.1, 10:57am and 7:57pm has never been on a long line halibut boat in his life. Those fantasy fictitious numbers he is throwing at the wall in hopes they will stick make no sense at all. Halibut IFQ holders have way to much invested to destroy their own resource as "Anonymous" describes. When the majority of "shakers" hit the water they're gone in a flash. As for observers, I say bring them on. We (the halibut IFQ holder) are paying for them anyway.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous must have some hidden motive for writing his jibberish because what he says makes no sense at all.
JR
Kodiak
The only dead halibut I ever tipped off a hook was full of sand fleas.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the only halibut the first commentor has seen were dead in the back of a trawl net. It's time the Kodiak trawl and sand point trawl fleet get 100% coverage.
ReplyDeleteJR, my thoughts exactly.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all 10:57 is an idiot....go ahead and put observers on any boat as much as you want...the observers will tell you themselves that they are 3-4 YEARS behind on evaluating the information they collect....that in itself makes the program a joke......and I can still feel the ache between my spine and shoulder blade from a busy shaker set
ReplyDeleteAnonymous February 1, 2015 at 10:57 AM, probably one of the irish idiot trawlers. So to catch the 22 million pounds of 2014 quota, the halibut fishermen had to catch and kill 270 million pounds. The only guys with that kind of waste efficiency are the trawlers. Go back to europe and fix your screwed up fisheries.
ReplyDeleteOne more thing, does IPHC have a clue? in 2014 IPHC cut 4A by 36%. Now in 2015 they are recommending to raise 4A by 64%. How does that work with the management strategy?
ReplyDeleteThey changed the survey area when fisherman informed them that stocks were mainly using a different side of the shelf. IPHC adjusted the survey stations to reflect the new pattern of the fish. Results were much higher catches in the survey.
ReplyDeleteDo you have anything to back that up? What happened to fast down slow up?
ReplyDeleteJust hearing conversations at the IPHC last week, but it makes sense halibut populations move around some based on currents and food sources. making sets at the same stations every year may not be giving an accurate picture if halibut distribution has changed. As it seems they have done in 4A.
ReplyDeleteAt 10:57,,, You talk a big game (out your ass) about the Halibut longliners and their operations but you have never been near one.As someone else posted why would we destroy our own fishery? Personally we stop the gurdy and release each one. We don't rip the hook out, we don't rip the lips off,,,theres a way to dehook the fish where it comes out the same way it went in.It takes time but its our future why wouldn't we? Please get a little bit of a clue. Thanx, Bill Macnab
ReplyDeleteAt 10:57 the guy totally spaced out to mention that sport fishermen and charter operators need observers on their boats! they are the ones that rip out hooks and toss halibut overboard until the bigger one is caught, in some cases dead fish gets thrown overboard once the big one gets hooked.
ReplyDeleteHey Anonymous at 2:38
ReplyDeleteThe proof of an idiot is a racist. I'm an Irish longliner, and I'd be happy to teach you manners in this country.
The real crime is the NPFMC hiring Northern Economics to do an economic analysis of halibut bycatch reduction in the Bering Sea.
ReplyDelete#1 Marcus Hartley's study assumes any reduction in Bering Sea Halibut bycatch will result in a reduction in the trawl target catch.
He assumes no improvement possible. This despite the Canadian and US west coast bycatch reduction successes. And the fact that there is currently an incentive to fish dirty and trawlers that take the time to fish clean get penalized.
#2 He completely ignores the under 26" bycatch which make up the vast majority of the bycatch. In his warped analysis those fish, had they not been caught as bycatch, would not ever grow up and benefit the directed halibut fishery.
Typical economist bullshit, make assumptions that guarantee your desired result then do a million data runs using these to appear impressive.
I'm a commercial fisherman and enjoy sports fishing too. I do a lot of sport halibut in the Dutch Harbor area and I have a caught a ton of halibut with deformed jaws. Hmmmm could this be from the trawlers? How about the sports fisherman? It's a mystery.
ReplyDelete1:37 am I get what your hinting at and I'm sure there are some commercial guys who don't release properly but you also just argued some of our points.Your saying although these fish had their lips ripped off they survived to be caught by you and others.Imagine the survival rate for halibut properly released.Hmmmm thank you. Bill Macnab
ReplyDeleteIn 2014 23.69 million pounds of halibut were caught commercially, and 1.29 million pounds was marked as commercial wastage.
ReplyDeletelook at slide 6.
http://www.iphc.washington.edu/meetings/2014im/Assessment_IM2014b.pdf
Not sure where February 1, 2015 at 10:57 AM get his number. If he is one of the irish trawlers it makes sense, he was probably drunk and missed the decimal point. Michael Flatley
NMFS accounting of discards and discard mortality in the commercial fishery is inaccurate. I think that's where a lot of the misinformation and finger pointing at the directed fishery is coming from.
ReplyDeleteActual commercial fishery wastage (as given by IPHC) pales in comparison to bycatch mortality.