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Alaska commercial fishing news and notes
About me
- Deckboss
- I'm a journalist covering Alaska's commercial fishing industry. My real name is Wesley Loy. Reach me at wloy61@gmail.com.
Alaska commercial fishing news and notes
5 comments:
The decline of the halibut fishery started with the IFQ program, fishing on stocks for way too long every year.
That is a fact. Every square inch of the bottom is fished on these days.
Yep.
Early 2000s we would run 30 skates in 3A and get 15,000 to 20,000 pounds. This year we ran 140 skates for 20,000 pounds. It's only a matter of time before the IFQ fishery is suspended just like king crab.
I bought halibut poundage in 1999 and by 2004 that poundage had increased. Then the poundage was cut in half and the next year the same and the poundage was given to the charter side. From '04 to now the halibut fishery has been slow. With cuts to poundage and fuel cost higher quota boats start closer to town so everyone is fishing on the same grounds. Charter guides target the chicken patches to get their limit and commercial guys run a lot of gear to their quota, just the way it's going.
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