So how many very large BC Halibut Trophy's are mounted on walls anywhere, lol. But hey, if Halibut trophy hunting ever takes off I am sure the Taxidermy industry will be thrilled. Sorry, but the focus is on the food, not the Skin. Now if only they had a big rack on em or perhaps we could throw the head in an ant nest and then send the skull (do they have a true skull?) off to Boon and Crockett for a measurement and start a new category. Seriously, there is nothing remotely analogous about sport Halibut fishing and trophy hunting.
The large Halibut are inevitably large female prime breeding stock and from a conservation and sustainability point of view, it could be argued that leaving them in the water is not a terrible idea.
That however is not an argument that the Commercial sector, Quota owners, nor the Government/Political Parties they keep well greased (with Lobbyists and donations) want to make. Rather you will hear the opposite, - it’s very well managed, sustainable, etc.
There is no way in hell the commercial sector is not going to keep the large Halibut that are pure profit. Now increasingly there is also profit for the middle man quota owners, (increasingly corporations) who now own (well they do and they don’t -its complicated, -but practically) the Halibut (currently 85 percent) while not contributing anything, other than to siphon off money from those who actually fish, whether they be commercial fishermen or the sport sector (15 %) through the despised, corrupt, rip off; quota transfer/lease system they keep trying to force on us.
Keep in mind that they only need about 7% to meet the Halibut food needs of the non sport fishing Canadian Public. The rest is exported. If you want something to be outraged about, be outraged about that.