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Halibut catch limits could be down 28 percent next year
Article published on Thursday, December 2nd, 2010
By SAM FRIEDMAN
Mirror Writer
Commercial halibut catch limits could be down as much as 28 percent around Kodiak next year because of surveys showing fewer and smaller fish.
At an interim meeting in Seattle this week, International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) staff biologists recommended lower limits for most parts of the international fishery — especially in the Gulf of Alaska.
In Kodiak’s area the recommended catch limit for next year is 14.36 million pounds. Stocks are suffering worst in Southeast, where next year’s proposed 2.33 million-pound limit is down 47 percent from this year.
IPHC meets in Victoria, British Columbia, in January to set the limits.
The data used to make the recommendations comes from an annual survey IPHC has conducted since the mid 1990s.
“There’s significant evidence that abundance is declining and the fish have been getting smaller,” said Gregg Williams, a senior biologist with the commission. “A 12-year-old female is currently on the order of 15 to 20 pounds. Twenty-five years ago it was 35 to 40 pounds.”
But Williams said stocks are still above historical lows. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Kodiak area limits fell below 10 million pounds, he said.
It is difficult to know for certain the main cause of the current stock decline, but one popular theory is competition from the arrowtooth flounder, another flatfish that’s not nearly as valuable as halibut.
“(The flounder) are the most abundant fishery resource in the Gulf of Alaska right now and they’re quite hungry,” Williams said.
Despite the low numbers coming form the Gulf of Alaska, IPHC recommended modest catch limit increases in Washington, British Columbia and the Bering Sea. In total, next year’s recommended limits are 19 percent lower than this year’s.
IHPC is a public international organization that manages the halibut fishery in American and Canadian waters. It was founded in 1923 by treaty between the two nations.
Halibut catch limits could be down 28 percent next year
Article published on Thursday, December 2nd, 2010
By SAM FRIEDMAN
Mirror Writer
Commercial halibut catch limits could be down as much as 28 percent around Kodiak next year because of surveys showing fewer and smaller fish.
At an interim meeting in Seattle this week, International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) staff biologists recommended lower limits for most parts of the international fishery — especially in the Gulf of Alaska.
In Kodiak’s area the recommended catch limit for next year is 14.36 million pounds. Stocks are suffering worst in Southeast, where next year’s proposed 2.33 million-pound limit is down 47 percent from this year.
IPHC meets in Victoria, British Columbia, in January to set the limits.
The data used to make the recommendations comes from an annual survey IPHC has conducted since the mid 1990s.
“There’s significant evidence that abundance is declining and the fish have been getting smaller,” said Gregg Williams, a senior biologist with the commission. “A 12-year-old female is currently on the order of 15 to 20 pounds. Twenty-five years ago it was 35 to 40 pounds.”
But Williams said stocks are still above historical lows. In the late 1970s and early 1980s Kodiak area limits fell below 10 million pounds, he said.
It is difficult to know for certain the main cause of the current stock decline, but one popular theory is competition from the arrowtooth flounder, another flatfish that’s not nearly as valuable as halibut.
“(The flounder) are the most abundant fishery resource in the Gulf of Alaska right now and they’re quite hungry,” Williams said.
Despite the low numbers coming form the Gulf of Alaska, IPHC recommended modest catch limit increases in Washington, British Columbia and the Bering Sea. In total, next year’s recommended limits are 19 percent lower than this year’s.
IHPC is a public international organization that manages the halibut fishery in American and Canadian waters. It was founded in 1923 by treaty between the two nations.
