Early Halibut Opening

[searun]

Overthinking this a bit...here's the FN

Category(s):
RECREATIONAL - Fin Fish (Other than Salmon)


Fishery Notice - Fisheries and Oceans Canada

Subject: FN0264-Recreational - Fin Fish (Other than Salmon) - Halibut - Fishery 2023 Conditions of Licence starting April 1, 2023

For 2023, the recreational Halibut fishery allocation is 880,250 pounds. The recreational Halibut fishery is actively managed to stay within sector’s allocation and fishers should watch for subsequent Fishery Notices to announce potential in-season changes.

Limits and sizes:

Effective at 00:01 hours February 01, 2023, fishing for Halibut was opened coast-wide until further notice(see 2023 Fishery Notice FN0100)

Effective at 00:01 hours April 01, 2023 until December 31, 2023:

The daily limit is one (1) halibut per day.

The possession limit for halibut is EITHER of:

---- one (1) halibut measuring 90 cm to 126 cm in length (69 cm to 97 cm head-off),

OR

---- two (2) halibut, each measuring under 90 cm in length (69 cm head-off).

No person shall retain a Halibut greater than 126 cm head-on length (97 cm head-off).

Head-off measurements are made from the base of the pectoral fin at its most forward point to the extreme end of the middle of the tail.

Annual Limit:

No person shall catch and retain more than ten (10) halibut in the aggregate from April 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024.

Licensing:

The 2022/2023 Tidal Waters Sport Fishing Licences and Conditions of Licence, are in effect until March 31, 2023.

The 2023/2024 Tidal Waters Sport Fishing Licences and Conditions of Licence will be in effect from April 1, 2023 until March 31, 2024.

All halibut retained by the licence holder between April 1, 2023 and March 31, 2024 shall be immediately recorded on the 2023/2024 Tidal Waters Sport Fishing Licence, or, if mobile access is immediately available, the licence holder may record catch in the National Recreational Licensing System. The area from which each halibut is caught and its head-on length shall immediately be recorded.

The exceptions to these openings are:

Areas 121: No person shall fish for or retain halibut, rockfish and lingcod in Area 121 outside the 12 nautical mile limit seaward of a line that begins at 48 degrees 34.000 minutes and 125 degrees 17.386 minutes W and continues south easterly at a bearing of 116 degrees True to a point at 48 degrees 28.327 minutes and 125 degrees 01.687 minutes W.

Areas 121: Closed to all finfish, year round in the waters of Swiftsure Bank. Those portions of Subareas 121-1 and 121-2 inside a line that begins at 48 degrees 34.000 minutes N and 125 degrees 06.000 minutes W, then true east to 48 degrees 34.000 minutes N and 124 degrees 54.200 minutes W, then southeasterly to the International Boundary, outer perimeter at 48 degrees 29.618 minutes N and 124 degrees 43.553 minutes W, then westerly following the International Boundary perimeter to 48 degrees 29.605 minutes N and 124 degrees 56.190 minutes W, then northwesterly to the beginning point.

Rockfish Conservation Area (RCA) and Glass Sponge Reef (GSR) closures remain in effect - refer to the following web pages for descriptions:

1)RCAs- http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/restricted-restreint-eng.html#rca

2)GSRs- http://www.pac.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/fm-gp/rec/restricted-restreint-eng.html#sponge


Variation Orders 2023-RCT-055(Close Time) and 2023-RFQ-056 (Quota) are in effect.


Anglers are reminded of the mandatory condition of licence for the release of rockfish; all anglers in vessels shall immediately return all rockfish that are not being retained to the water and to a similar depth from which they were caught by use of an inverted weighted barbless hook or other purpose-built descender device.


FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Pratima Alexander, (A/GMU Recreational Coordinator) – Pratima.Alexander@dfo-mpo.gc.ca


Fisheries and Oceans Canada Operations Center - FN0264
Sent March 17, 2023 at 12:15
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[Confused]

There you go. Smaller upper limit and lost the 2 per day under 90cm.

Does anyone know if they are going to allow the raisng the daily limit to 2cor 3 under 90 as a condition of license in the future this season.

 

[Bryan Allen]

Good luck on that one. You would still get a fine.

Dont think so-- Judges do not like unclear, confusing regulations. My money , if challenged in Court would be a "stay of proceedings"

 

[SpringVelocity]

Dont think so-- Judges do not like unclear, confusing regulations. My money , if challenged in Court would be a "stay of proceedings"

I doubt it.

 

[Dale66]

There you go. Smaller upper limit and lost the 2 per day under 90cm.

Does anyone know if they are going to allow the raisng the daily limit to 2cor 3 under 90 as a condition of license in the future this season.

Didn’t need to lose it

 

[bryce]

@scott craven on a Friday afternoon…. Shocker

 

[Augie]

880,250 lbs of TAC for the recreational sector. What was last years? Does anyone know? At one a day I doubt we’d come close to fulfilling that?!

Plus I found this in the 2023 IPHC report:

“
1) In all waters off British Columbia:6, 7
(a) the recreational (sport) fishing season will open on 1 February;
(b) the recreational (sport) fishing season will close when the recreational (sport) fishery limit allocated by DFO is taken, or 31 December, whichever is earlier; and
(c) the daily bag limit is two (2) Pacific halibut of any size per day, per person, and may be increased to a daily bag limit of three (3) Pacific halibut per day, per person on or after 1 August. This provision shall remain in effect through 2025, unless extended by a vote of the Commission.”

So why did DFO lower the limit to one? When clearly the science supports two and maybe even three per day?!

 

[Charter Tofino]

The estimated biomass dropped so our TAC dropped and the science doesn’t support 2 or 3 a day from the start. I wish we could’ve kept last years regs but we would’ve been over TAC so it’s hard to argue. They can adjust the undersized daily/possession in season depending on catches.

 

[searun]

To answer the questions regarding if there is provision to increase the daily limit from 1 to 2 or even 3 - yes.

What happens and how those decisions are reached is part of a very carefully managed process to inform those decisions so we do not either use up our available TAC, or in the alternative fail to optimize using our TAC. In situations where our catch exceeds available TAC, the fishery will be closed in-season. In-season closures are not something we want to risk. Against that background, don't expect to see any decisions to increase daily limits until there is sufficient catch data to assess how the fishery is tracking against the available TAC we have to work with - ordinarily the earliest possible date we could have sufficient data would be July unless the March to May data shows very low catch.

Our regulatory process is very limited in terms of what can be varied in-season. We cannot change the size in-season for example, because our licenses must be available to be sold and printed with the season Conditions of License which spell out the size limits. Once issued, they cannot be changed. Therefore, the only mechanism we have to dial up or down the amount of TAC our fishery is catching is to use a Variation Order to reduce or increase daily and possession limits.

Currently, we can use a Variation Order to vary the daily limit from 1 to 2. The SFAB and DFO went to the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) to negotiate agreement to pilot a new 3 year provision for Canada to increase daily limits to 3 - BUT that cannot take place until August 1.

So between April 1 and August 1, we can vary daily limit from 1 to 2. After August 1, we can vary the halibut limit to 3.

Why the delay?

The SFAB/DFO Halibut Committee meets monthly in-season to review catch estimates. As you can imagine, those estimates take a few months to be collected and refined. Typically there is a 1 to 2 month lag between the month where data was collected, and when the final estimate is available to the Halibut Committee. We also need to see data from the really big halibut catch months which are June, July, August. So for example, the first really meaningful catch data isn't really available until July.

How does Creel work?

DFO through the creel program collects catch data from anglers at landing sites all along the coast. Additionally, lodge and guide log book data is collected and additionally informs estimates. The creel and log book data is used to generate a Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) estimate. DFO also conducts a series of regular over-flights to count vessels fishing. This is then used to apply the CPUE estimate x number of vessels observed and then estimated to produce an overall in-season estimate. Where possible, Creel over-flight estimates are not applied to vessels that turned in log books - that vessel is removed from the estimates to avoid double counting, and the actual CPUE data is instead used.

Hope this helps understand what options we have, how those are tied to catch data, and then carefully managed to ensure that we do not go over our TAC but also adjustments made to increase our catch when appropriate ensuring we optimize our TAC based on fishery performance.

 

[Augie]

Thank you for the replies. Did everyone’s TAC get lowered? The Alaskans are taking less too?

 

[wolf]

OK you watch and MARK my words this is to screw us over once again. just wait by end of summer oh look we didnt use it up again and limits will increase.
The quoto WILL NEVER get reached this year and they did this on purpose other user groups have obviously been in someones ear chirping.

There is no way a guy is going to go to the big banks,swiftsure etc to go look for 1 fish hopefully a bigger one but will setlle for a under 90 cm then return the next day to look for his second 90 cm fish with the price of fuel the way it is ESPECIALLY if you cant fish for salmon out there. lets be real it not worth it.. to be clear plain and simple we are getting F@#$ in the A$$ again and will continue to until there is more push back been saying it for years and years but im at the end of my carreer and dont have the fight in me anymore.

Get used to more and more restrictions as EVERY DAMN YEAR they take a lil bit out of of fishery, only have to look whats happened in the last 10 years with this government dmage has been done and the bites are getting bigger .

 

[wildmanyeah]

How much tac did we harvest last year?

 

[eroyd]

Dont think so-- Judges do not like unclear, confusing regulations. My money , if challenged in Court would be a "stay of proceedings"

I kind of agree. A new angler is instructed to go to the website, go to the area they intend to fish, check the species they are after and scroll down to any special regulations. Most would fairly assume they are good to go. As for Area 19-3, as of the moment I am typing this, 133 is the max size, there is no mention of any daily bag limit of one, and there is no reference to further regulations.

If your a seasoned angler, a guide, maybe you are on top of these things, but for a novice, good luck! DFO has to get a grip on their own web.

 

[Rockfish]

I miss the salt water sport fishing regs. of my youth. All of the regs would fit on a half sheet of paper and primarily consisted of 'You were allowed 4 salmon a day of any salmon species in any combination as long as they were over 12 inches and barb hooks were just fine'. As for other species, no rules just take home what you need. Oh and no salt water fishing licenses existed in those days, you just went fishing without forking over money for a license to the Feds. .

 

[Charter Tofino]

OK you watch and MARK my words this is to screw us over once again. just wait by end of summer oh look we didnt use it up again and limits will increase.
The quoto WILL NEVER get reached this year and they did this on purpose other user groups have obviously been in someones ear chirping.

There is no way a guy is going to go to the big banks,swiftsure etc to go look for 1 fish hopefully a bigger one but will setlle for a under 90 cm then return the next day to look for his second 90 cm fish with the price of fuel the way it is ESPECIALLY if you cant fish for salmon out there. lets be real it not worth it.. to be clear plain and simple we are getting F@#$ in the A$$ again and will continue to until there is more push back been saying it for years and years but im at the end of my carreer and dont have the fight in me anymore.

Get used to more and more restrictions as EVERY DAMN YEAR they take a lil bit out of of fishery, only have to look whats happened in the last 10 years with this government dmage has been done and the bites are getting bigger .

The whole point is to not use up all the TAC. Imagine we went over last year, carried that deficit over to this year and then got a 10% TAC drop. We used 94-95% of last years TAC which is pretty bang on when trying to stay under.

I’m Hali fishing 150 days a year and certainly don’t want to run offshore twice a trip for unders but if you sit down and look at the math it was a tough but predictable decision.

Hopefully we get the second under as a daily during summer months and the biomass increases in the future so our TAC back up. As we’ve seen from the last 10 years this is a year to year process with some years great and some not so great.

 

[wildmanyeah]

How much tac did we harvest last year?

Nvm found it

https://iphc.int/uploads/pdf/am/am099/iphc-2023-am099-nr01.pdf

 

[Newf]

I kind of agree. A new angler is instructed to go to the website, go to the area they intend to fish, check the species they are after and scroll down to any special regulations. Most would fairly assume they are good to go. As for Area 19-3, as of the moment I am typing this, 133 is the max size, there is no mention of any daily bag limit of one, and there is no reference to further regulations.

If your a seasoned angler, a guide, maybe you are on top of these things, but for a novice, good luck! DFO has to get a grip on their own web.

Halibut

20

Hook and Line, Spear

1/2/10

Open (See Restrictions)

Halibut

Coastwide

Reminder

The possession limit for halibut is EITHER of: one (1) halibut measuring 90 cm to 133 cm in length (69 cm to 102 cm head-off), OR two (2) halibut, each measuring under 90 cm in length (69 cm head-off). No person shall retain a halibut greater than 133 cm head-on length (102 cm head-off). Head-off measurements are made from the base of the pectoral fin at its most forward point to the extreme end of the middle of the tail.

I'm guessing that this is regulation section you are referring to. If it is, then the Daily Limit is referenced in in the top section 1/2/10. (1) Daily, (2) Possession, (10) Yearly. It then says see restriction. In this restriction that you have to scroll down to see. it starts off with "The Possession Limit for halibut is" It doesn't mention daily because it is not talking about Daily. Clearly stated in the first 3 words, so the Daily Limit is still (1) unless specifically noted,,which it is not. The same information was in the FN for Feb to end of March (FN0100) and worded the same way for the latest one released for April 1st except the Max was reduced to 126cm. I know I'm repeating myself but Daily and Possession Limits are not the same and that's clearly stated in the Regs as well so I'm not sure how people think they can keep 2 under 90cm on the same day with a Daily Limit of 1, but I know people, including some from DFO are confusing the two.

Two days ago I was again told at the dock that I could keep two unders per day. When I explained my understand he said "no, in the restriction section it means that possession and Daily are the same thing." Not so,, Daily is not mentioned in the restriction. This was from a guy that should know. Lucky for me I saw Roy (Wolf) walking past the marina store so we approached him to get his take. Appreciated him taking the time to confirm and explain the Limits. 1 Daily no exception. 2 in your Possession if under 90cm but not caught on the same day.

Maybe they could say:

Daily Limit 1 (No exception unless noted)
Possession Limit ( Refers to Multi Day Trip) and then Blah,Blah,Blah

 

[Murry]

To answer the questions regarding if there is provision to increase the daily limit from 1 to 2 or even 3 - yes.

What happens and how those decisions are reached is part of a very carefully managed process to inform those decisions so we do not either use up our available TAC, or in the alternative fail to optimize using our TAC. In situations where our catch exceeds available TAC, the fishery will be closed in-season. In-season closures are not something we want to risk. Against that background, don't expect to see any decisions to increase daily limits until there is sufficient catch data to assess how the fishery is tracking against the available TAC we have to work with - ordinarily the earliest possible date we could have sufficient data would be July unless the March to May data shows very low catch.

Our regulatory process is very limited in terms of what can be varied in-season. We cannot change the size in-season for example, because our licenses must be available to be sold and printed with the season Conditions of License which spell out the size limits. Once issued, they cannot be changed. Therefore, the only mechanism we have to dial up or down the amount of TAC our fishery is catching is to use a Variation Order to reduce or increase daily and possession limits.

Currently, we can use a Variation Order to vary the daily limit from 1 to 2. The SFAB and DFO went to the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) to negotiate agreement to pilot a new 3 year provision for Canada to increase daily limits to 3 - BUT that cannot take place until August 1.

So between April 1 and August 1, we can vary daily limit from 1 to 2. After August 1, we can vary the halibut limit to 3.

Why the delay?

The SFAB/DFO Halibut Committee meets monthly in-season to review catch estimates. As you can imagine, those estimates take a few months to be collected and refined. Typically there is a 1 to 2 month lag between the month where data was collected, and when the final estimate is available to the Halibut Committee. We also need to see data from the really big halibut catch months which are June, July, August. So for example, the first really meaningful catch data isn't really available until July.

How does Creel work?

DFO through the creel program collects catch data from anglers at landing sites all along the coast. Additionally, lodge and guide log book data is collected and additionally informs estimates. The creel and log book data is used to generate a Catch Per Unit Effort (CPUE) estimate. DFO also conducts a series of regular over-flights to count vessels fishing. This is then used to apply the CPUE estimate x number of vessels observed and then estimated to produce an overall in-season estimate. Where possible, Creel over-flight estimates are not applied to vessels that turned in log books - that vessel is removed from the estimates to avoid double counting, and the actual CPUE data is instead used.

Hope this helps understand what options we have, how those are tied to catch data, and then carefully managed to ensure that we do not go over our TAC but also adjustments made to increase our catch when appropriate ensuring we optimize our TAC based on fishery performance.

Thanks Searun for the information.
Please don't take any of the feedback personally. Its always difficult being the messenger. Too many times the messenger 'gets shot' and bears the responses from people who are upset with message and are frustrated with those in charge making the decisions.

Please keep on posting the updates. I know myself, and I'm sure others are very appreciative you providing us with the information and insight.

 

[2xeagle16]

Please DISREGARD THE INFO in this post for now. I have forwarded the following info to the DFO Recreational Coordinator for clarification.

I received from DFOI just received this email from DFO.............

Daily Limit:
The possession limit for halibut is EITHER of: one (1) halibut measuring 90 cm to 133 cm in length (69 cm to 102 cm head-off), OR
two (2) halibut, each measuring under 90 cm in length (69 cm head-off).

No person shall retain a halibut greater than 133 cm head-on length (102 cm head-off). Head-off measurements are made from the base of the pectoral fin at its most forward point to the extreme end of the middle of the tail.

Possession Limit:
The maximum number of fish you can have in your possession at any given time, except for what is at your ordinary residence.
As per the regulations highlighted above, your possession limit for more than 1 day would be either:

2 Halibut over 90 cm or 4 all under the size of 90cm.

Just to let you know, the DFO Recreational coordinator got back to me today. The information from DFO in my previous message is incorrect. The fishery FN0100 notice is correct – one halibut limit per day.

 

[searun]

Thanks Searun for the information.
Please don't take any of the feedback personally. Its always difficult being the messenger. Too many times the messenger 'gets shot' and bears the responses from people who are upset with message and are frustrated with those in charge making the decisions.

Please keep on posting the updates. I know myself, and I'm sure others are very appreciative you providing us with the information and insight.

Thanks, very much appreciated. Having been engaged in the SFAB process for many years, attending countless meetings to advance the interests of the public fishery your kind words mean a lot. Especially helpful given a number of hard working recreational representatives within the SFAB are under personal attack from ENGO groups and others slandering their character. No wonder people get discouraged.

It is hard to capture the complexity of how management decisions are made - and while I often don't personally agree with decisions reached - at least being involved in providing DFO with our input hopefully helps put a voice into the decision mix so to speak. So my posts here are intended to try to capture as best i can those issues for people - but I'm certainly not trying to be an apologist for management decisions reached.

Halibut TAC Decision at IPHC:

A question was raised regarding the IPHC decision on TAC - I along with others on the SFAB team were in attendance at the IPHC. This year's proceedings were complex in that there was science advice to the IPHC expressing concern that there appears not to be a distinguishable recruitment cohort other than the 2012 age class cohort that is contributing to backfilling the overall halibut population.

A lot of debate around the need to take significant reductions in TAC until there is a clear signal that more recruitment cohorts (spawn years) were successful. One reason for the uncertainty is the main tool to assess the halibut biomass is the set-line survey - one potential blind spot of the survey is due to the hook size and bait on the gear. Set-line gear usually doesn't capture a clear picture of smaller halibut - new recruits. So it takes a few years to start seeing the more recent recruitment cohorts caught in the set-line surveys to assess what is going to happen in the future.

The fish that contributed most to the current fishery are now starting to "age out" and without new recruits coming in to backfill these aging out fish, the stock will start to decline - possibly significantly. One bright spot is there was a large successful spawning recruitment in 2012, and those fish are now just starting to enter the fishery. Given this expect to see the average size decline, and for fishing to be slower as time goes on. We certainly heard from commercial halibut harvesters all up and down the coast that their fishing CPUE and size was also down in the 2022 fishery. This seems to support the observations reported in the IPHC set-line surveys.

That said, the IPHC, guided by this science advice took the position that there would be a "coast-wide reduction of 10%". Meaning all Management Areas shared equally in these reductions - despite arguments from some of the AK reps who pressed for Canada and others to take a larger share of the reductions.

2023 Rec Regulation Decision:

How that translates to the 2023 recreational TAC available is we similarly took a 10% reduction in TAC (-130,000 pounds), and given the final 2022 catch left just over 7% remaining in the available TAC - the math is pretty clear - we could not have rolled over the 2022 regulations (90cm/133cm) without taking on real risk we could exceed our available TAC.

Looking ahead to 2024:

If we exceed our available TAC, that results in either an early season closure on short notice or there is a provision for us to carry the overage into the 2024 season deducting the overage amount from our 2024 TAC. I would suggest it is not the interest of our fishery in 2024 to take a reduction to cover any overages given the likelihood we will again see a similar reduction in TAC going forward into 2024 unless there is a strong signal in the set-line data that there are is an improvement in future abundance coming.