Iceland Bans Halibut Fishing

[chris73]

Just came across this. Thought you might be interested. Now it's even more a shame that Canada won't be able to offer all those stranded halibut tourists from Europe an alternate fishing destination - because I am not sure if they want to shell out a few thousand dollars to target small halibut.

Iceland outlaws all fishing for halibut

ICELAND has moved to ban virtually all halibut fishing with almost immediate effect because of growing fears over the state of the stock.


The move, which comes into force with the start of the New Year on Sunday, has caught many people by surprise because normally fish quotas and restrictions are announced in the summer and usually come into force the following September.

About eight months ago Fisheries Minister Jon Bjarnason announced that fishing halibut for pleasure by anglers would be outlawed from January 1st. Iceland attracts many tourists, most from Germany and central Europe in the spring and summer who come just to fish for halibut. Then on Christmas Eve, presumably following advice from his fishery research scientists, he upgraded the law to include halibut by-catches by fishing vessels, including any fish caught by accident.

Icelandic fishermen will now be required by law to drop all halibut they catch back alive into the sea. To avoid accusations of adopting a discards policy all dead fish will be brought ashore and sold, but the proceeds will be given to the country's fishery research department.

Data from the Icelandic Marine Research Institute suggest that halibut stocks have been decreasing at a worrying rate for some time now. At one time the halibut catch quota was around 8,000 tons a year, but the figure has since fallen to 500 tons. From now on the quota will be almost zero until the stock returns to good health - which may be several years away. These days almost all Icelandic caught halibut has been the result of a by-catch.

 

[Dogbreath]

They'll head to Greenland now-some real monsters lurk in the depths there-it's getting to them that's the issue.

 

[Finished Business]

I am not sure if they want to shell out a few thousand dollars to target small halibut.

This sounds pretty close to what we pay as a group coming from the mainland to try for some halibut on the west coast. It probably costs about $2k for 3 or 4 of us to try for our shot at halibut....sure hope the weather cooperates. It didn't? damn! Next halibut will be $4000....sure hope its 59.9lbs...

 

[trophywife]

good thing WE DO NOT HAVE A STOCK ISSUE!!!! just a % problem with tac