Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Dump those halibut, or donate?

The National Marine Fisheries Service has received an application for a special permit to allow a factory trawler, the Northern Glacier, to donate some halibut bycatch to a hunger relief organization rather than return the fish to the sea as required by regulation.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'd rather dump amendment 80

Anonymous said...

How bout the just don’t catch them? Novel idea

Anonymous said...

The only legitimate use for halibut at these abundance levels is for Alaska recreational and subsistence anglers.

Anonymous said...

It’s sad that some people just agree to. David’s cult. You think trawlers are the bad guys? In the next phase let’s see what happens to ms Behnkens followers. Just a matter of time.

Anonymous said...

What a tone deaf suggestion, come on Glenn, do better.

Anonymous said...

Trawl and longline kill more bycatch more than sport fish keeps. Sport brings in more money and jobs to Alaska. Time to reallocate.

Anonymous said...

Charter Boats catch plenty of Halibut. 90 percent of which leave the State in fish boxes in Southeast. When Halibut stocks are at Historic lows everyone needs to be conservative.

Anonymous said...

Charter gets one fish a day and is tied up part of the week. When was the last time trawl or longline had to sit at the dock while we went fishing?

Anonymous said...

They should donate all bycatch

Anonymous said...

This is fake news, the best available science shows wasting millions of pounds of bycatch is not a big deal.

Anonymous said...

The best available science also says that having a fishery that only harvests mature breeding females is sustainable. You know who doesn't do that? Sport fishermen.

Anonymous said...

“When was the last time longliners were tied to the dock?”

Mine is tied to the dock 50 weeks a year. Not so for the charter boats, and the “unguided” only keep growing.

Anonymous said...

This is a terrible idea. If all bycatch from trawlers was processed and retained for donation, trawling would not be feasible.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like you don't own much quota. Better work on your business plan. Unguided is a legit user group. Everyday Americans have a right to our resources.

Anonymous said...

90+ percent of bycatch is processed and used. You're out of your element here donny

Anonymous said...

Unguided sport fishermen contribute zero to the conservation of halibut biomass, regardless of the status of the stocks.

Their catch "comes off the top' when all halibut mortality is accounted for. Two fish a day, no size limit, every day - and those non-limits by rec fishermen lower the the commercial uses of the fish. In effect: their harvests don't matter.

The dude who comes off the Slope, takes his family to Whittier to fish off this $200k boat in PWS to take 2 fish per day, of any size, for 2 days for each member onboard, then claims he's "fishing to feed his family" is how we currently manage this fishery.

Anonymous said...

If we didn't have commercial fishing, we wouldn't need to spend millions on a dysfunctional management system that can't even conduct surveys or agree to follow the science. Rec fishing will never take as much as the trawl and longliners waste in bycatch every year. It'll happen someday, maybe sooner if we get the right gov.