Thursday, July 21, 2011

OK, some for you, and for you — now hush!

Competing fleets have waged a halibut war for many years around the Gulf of Alaska.

Now federal regulators are working, again, on a potential resolution to the conflict.

It's called a "catch sharing plan." It would allocate halibut between the commercial and charter boat sectors.

The National Marine Fisheries Service is inviting public comment on the plan, and today issued this press release.

Deckboss, of course, takes no position. Other than he hopes the regulators this time succeed in settling this tiresome fight. I'm frankly worn out writing about it.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Umm, the NMFS does a catch sharing plan every year. I'm not sure you understand how this fishery is managed.

Anonymous said...

Oh, nevermind. It is me that is ignorant. I was thinking of area 2A.

Anonymous said...

Its about time something was done to finalize this issue. The charter fleet needs to make a living, the trouble is the rights to harvest don't belong to them. Let the charter fleet purchase IFQ and use it any way they like, the fish doesn't make distictions between a commercial hook and a charter hook. This way you restore banks faith in the S.E. halibut areas so people can continue to get loans while at the same time keeping a level playing field between all user groups.

Anonymous said...

hmmmm.... chapter boats and "commercial" boats are different?
both operate on a for profit basis.
i see no difference. let the charter fleet pay for their quotas like everyone else.

Anonymous said...

It's all going to "magically" disappear anyways. How much have they cut the quotas so far in recent years?

Anonymous said...

IFQ and catch shares made a big mess and continues to pit users against each other. Perhaps it's time to can the idea and go back to open access for all fishermen who are brave enough to get into boats and meet the challenge of fishing in big open water.

Anonymous said...

There is nothing wrong with the current IFQ system for halibut. If the charter fleet did not over harvest their allocation for eight years in a row I doubt we would be facing such huge cuts in the S.E. Alaska coast zones. The tranfer of IFQ through a lease to the charter vessels maintains the current system while at the same time allowing the charter fleet to continue operating during their season even with reduced quotas.

Anonymous said...

They, the charter fleet should have to buy there quota just like the commercial guys do. Go back to when they started the IFQ system, and check the charter fleets catch record like they did with the commercial fleet and issue quota based on there harvest records. every one after that would need to buy quota or the right to fish a certian # of lb's. just like the commercial guys would have to do if they wanted to start fishing. Then it would be fair.