Halibut Closed Until Further Notice

[searun]

Fisher69 - I couldn't agree more. We have to do our bit for conservation, and as I've stated on this forum before it should start with guys doing their part to avoid targeting large female fish. That way there would be more adult spawners around to ensure there are future generations.

 

[fisher69]

quote:Originally posted by searun

Fisher69 - I couldn't agree more. We have to do our bit for conservation, and as I've stated on this forum before it should start with guys doing their part to avoid targeting large female fish. That way there would be more adult spawners around to ensure there are future generations.

Yes I would agree with letting go everything over 80-100lbs. I know lots of the commercial guys would agree as well. At IPHC this year one of the comments made was that the small fish size we have now could be from targeting the larger females. We may be depleting our large fish gene pool.

 

[Last Chance]

And how to you propose measuring a halibut beside the boat? I really doubt most sporties could land anything bigger then about 40 pounds without harm to the fish. "Guestimating" beside the boat isn't something that can really be written into the regs.

Last Chance Fishing Adventures

www.lastchancefishingadventures.com
www.swiftsurebank.com

 

[quicksilver11]

Maybe the fact that there are ten of thousands of pounds of halibut caught by the trawl fleet that do not live its all documented by the observers on board. I have witnessed it first hand I would say it has more impact than sportys.

 

[Tailspin]

88 percent commercial impact and 12 percent rec caught impact. If it really is a consevation issue, dropping that 88% down might help a tad? No?



www.tailspincharters.com

 

[chris73]

Agree with you Tailspin. It's simple math - even if they shut the sporties completely down - it will be ONLY 12% reduction - ok, a bit more since we were over. Not much to gain on this end of the equation.

I would be interested to learn what the average size of hali caught by commies versus sporties is. I would assume the few halis over 100 lbs caught by sporties per year is negligible compared to the commies. But I may be wrong here?

 

[Islandgirl]

I agree with Wolf.. this whole thing has absolutely NOTHING to do with conservation.

 

[fisher69]

quote:Originally posted by Islandgirl

I agree with Wolf.. this whole thing has absolutely NOTHING to do with conservation.

got to say your wrong on this one. It is conservation. The commercial guys are kept to the number the department gives them. It is us(sporties) and the fn fish that are over(some times way over). This is the problem we are facing. at no time have we ever tried to keep to our number it has always been a cry to shut someone else down. Maybe we should get control of our own fishery before we start pointing fingers.

The trawl fleet is allowed up to 1,000,000lbs of bycatch. They have reduced it to 200,000lbs. The balance (800,000) is then put back on canada's tac for the following year. Not that I'm saying there isn't a problem here as well but these guys have done an outstanding job to clean up there fishery. Unlike the Alaska group that killed close to 10 million pounds last year in trawl mortality.

 

[wolf]

Think what you want but the commercial fleet wasnt able to get there quota maybe because there is so few of boats fishing and so many leases they were short 890,000 lbs less then what our take will be this year....... cmon get thinking rationally we are getting a very very tiny sliver of fish and now with the season which is going to be very short as the season may be open for maybe 3 to 5 months as it has been closed now for 4 months and counting if no one is fishing then???????????

Wolf

Blue Wolf Charters
www.bluewolfcharters.com

 

[mason.jar]

Here is the latest news release from IPHC 2009 TAC's. Mason
http://www.killfish.com/up/IPHC_2009_TACs.pdf


[www.savebcsalmon.ca]

 

[wolf]

Thanks mason. looks bad.as commercial from what I read squashed everything

Blue Wolf Charters
www.bluewolfcharters.com

 

[fish4all]

quote:Originally posted by wolf

Thanks mason. looks bad.as commercial from what I read squashed everything

Blue Wolf Charters
www.bluewolfcharters.com

Where did you read that the commercials squashed things??

 

[wolf]

Therefore, seasons will commence at 12 noon local time on March 21 and terminate at 12 noon local
time on November 15, 2009


An industry proposal to reduce the commercial size limit for halibut was reviewed but not adopted


Our seson here so far has been closed now from oct to ??????? who knows when?????
So if this was a conservation issue if we cant fish why does the commercial get to fish???? a commercial boat wil take a lot more in one stint out at sea than any amount taken on a weekend of sporty fishing.

on a side not I am not trying to stir the pot but just angry and pissed off why we as sport fisherman always get it in the arse , it is very frustrating to see where this is going to head too. thats all


Wolf

Blue Wolf Charters
www.bluewolfcharters.com

 

[Swiggy]

To me the reasoning seems quite clear.

Between March.21 - November.15 they calculate the commercial sector will be able to harvest its allocation. If it is harvested sooner they will be shut down sooner.

The recreational sector, including charters, will also be given an amount of fishing time calculated to harvest their allocation. From my understanding an opening will not happen until a fishery plan is in place and approved.

The question I have is? Would you rather have a recreational opening March.21 and then be shut down during the summer months because the allocation has been achieved?

One option may be to have an early year opening with a closure in between and then open again in the summer to early fall.

 

[cuttlefish]

Thanks Mason and Swiggy,
Let's remember that commercials are on an ITQ. They start on March 21 and once each quota holder lands their ITQ, their done unless they lease more. Doesn't matter what date they land their ITQ. If they don't get that ITQ by Nov. 15, they leave the rest in the water.

Without a system like that, DFO has only time, area or bag limits with which to manage the harvest. So, within that context, what are the best options for management?

 

[cuttlefish]

Ooops. I forgot to mention size limits. Another management tool.

 

[Deewar25]

Well, just received a response by DFO from a letter I sent to them last month outlining all my management concerns in general. Essentially they outlined what we already know about the commercial/sport allocation and the history of the TAC etc etc Few things of note were the implication that they are working towards decreasing the need for in-season management and dedicating continued discussion with both recreational and commercial sectors...working closely with the SFAB to deal with all the concerns. They want to hear what the sports guys have to say and how best to work with us(so they claim of course!)

One piece enlightening out of it though, was that they said they ARE NOT considering slot limits/size limits for the halibut at all - so no guessing games with that 40 pounder thrashing at the side of the boat from the looks of it.

This was a response by Andrew Thomson in Vancouver.

 

[chris73]

So maybe there is still some hope that a little bit of common sense will prevail.[|)]

 

[gamechanger]

Ok guys, I just went through all seven pages of posts and read everyone and from what I could digest it seems that the allocation of commercial sport is the real issue, not how to monitor who catches what, and when quotas are reduced, the cut-backs are proportional...not that big of a deal. The real issue here is the 88/12 split, the rest is just details.

Now can someone tell me:

1. Are the sporties taking the DFO to court? because we should be if we are not, and fight for our rights in a proper legal forum rather than just bitching about it here.

2. What legal organizations we have, are the SFI and the SFAB legal, or just advisory, because if they are not legal than we need to create a legal association to represent us, we need to fund them, and they need to fight for us.

We cannot continue to be disorganized like this, hopefully we are more legally organized than I know about, and we all need to pay for the fight that we are going to have. We all know that this 88/12 split is wrong, it's putting property rights of a common resource into the hands of a few, and it's not right, and probably not legal, but that's for the courts to decide.

So can someone out there tell me if we are legally organized and lets start amassing a fund to fight the DFO decision in court where it needs to be fought. The courts and the media are the only way that we can win this battle.

 

[Fishinnut]

I feel bad for you guys. We got a 22% cut here in area 2A, but not as drastic as yours. Last year our ocean fishery was horrendous as we only have days now and the weather turned ugly. We didn't get our ocean sport quota. Being IPHC is using "science" to get this outcome, somehow you need to turn around the 88/12 split. I don't know how you can other than with lobbyist. We are finally getting some down here in Washington state and it is making a difference. But this is only state, not federal and federal is the real problem. We have been trying to take legisltures fishing and open their eyes, as they are so far off with reality, its not funny.

If Alaska would back off with taking so many, maybe more would get through to us. One of the meetings I attended showed that a lot of the halibut east of the Bering Sea migrate east and south to us. If they cannot get through that hurts us all. Alaska commies are hurting the sporties up there in areas too with another bad ratio like yours. I hope you can get it fixed. No private sector should own a public resource-ever. IFQs did that. Maybe now Ted Stevens is gone out of Alaska things have the ability to change. A lot of my friends gave up on fighting politics as the bottom line was that if Ted Stevens is still in Alaska-we will never win. As far as salmon, Alaska does not have to sit at the NOAA table with the rest of us on the West Coast of North America. They take what they want and we have to divide whats left. Things are starting to change a little. CCA has come into Washington and is gaining momentum like you would not believe as everyone is so mad at losing to the commies no matter what battle you win-nothing changes. Lawsuits are were its at. Doess CCA have a canadian branch?