Early Halibut Opening
- Thread starter carpeweekend
- Start date
bryce
Crew Member
won’t hear anything official for awhile
searun
Well-Known Member
We don't yet know how much TAC will be available to Canada. The IPHC meetings (AM100) will take place next week. By Friday January 26th the IPHC will post the decision. Once we know the available TAC, the SFAB Halibut Working Group will sit down with DFO to review potential modelling predictions to examine which works best and make a regulation and season start date recommendation.
The earliest possible opening date will be Feb 01, however that is unlikely taking into consideration all that work to review available options, recommend a choice, and then have the regulations approved and Fisheries Notices posted etc.
Here's a link to the IPHC AM100 meeting documents if you are interested:
www.iphc.int
The earliest possible opening date will be Feb 01, however that is unlikely taking into consideration all that work to review available options, recommend a choice, and then have the regulations approved and Fisheries Notices posted etc.
Here's a link to the IPHC AM100 meeting documents if you are interested:
100th Session of the IPHC Annual Meeting (AM100) - IPHC
Meeting Results Document Title PDF Video Availability IPHC-2024-AM100-R Report of the 100th Session of the IPHC Annual Meeting (AM100) 26 Jan 2024 IPHC-2024-AM100-WEBINAR Recording of the 100th Session of the IPHC Annual Meeting (AM100) 26 Jan 2024 IPHC-2024-AM100-VIDEO Video: 100 Years of...
www.iphc.int
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trophywife
Crew Member
was there any left over tac? does it get transferred in any way to the next season.
bryce
Crew Member
All gone with an early closure
wolf
Well-Known Member
NO and NO I asked that same question and to be implemented years ago was told NO
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
I doubt it will open early. Will see. Not counting on it this year honestly like the past.
The TAC we are allowed keeps decreasing. That gets challenging with the small percentage we are allowed.
The TAC we are allowed keeps decreasing. That gets challenging with the small percentage we are allowed.
searun
Well-Known Member
The final recreational halibut catch numbers are still being finalized. At this juncture the season closed early because the preliminary catch data available to the Halibut Working Group showed there was potentially a small overage. Recreational underages are not banked and carried over from one calendar year to the next. However, overages from the previous season (2023) are deducted from the available TAC for the new season (2024). No final decision has been reached as of this time if there is an overage that would be deducted.
The only TAC that can be carried over from one season to the next is the Commercial Halibut quota holders can carry over up to 10% of their prior season's un-used quota.
The reason the limit was increased to allow retaining 2 small halibut in one day mid season was at that time, available catch data was indicating we were tracking below the expected catch, and if that trend continued we would not use our available TAC. Unfortunately after the decision was made to increase the daily limit, we encountered really good weather which allows more effort to be directed at halibut and also the salmon fishing was so good that people caught their salmon earlier in the day and ventured out halibut fishing. Isn't something that usually takes place. Predicting fishing effort and angler behaviour is very complicated and nearly impossible to get right.
From my read of the IPHC data its looking like the dominant age class that will be catchable in our upcoming fishery will come from the 2012 cohort of spawners. The prior dominant age classes which are now the large fish we encountered are starting to age-out of the fishery, so we will see fewer large fish. More likely the dominant size class will be fish near the 80-90 cm mark in size.
For the IPHC, the conern going forward is there hasn't been a strong signal in the available set line survey data showing another large number of fish coming up from an earlier than the dominant 2012 cohort. There is some emerging evidence that suggests there was a successful spawn in the 2014 spawning cycle - but bit too early to fully assess with confidence. While possibly being some good news, its hard to predict how the IPHC will take that into account when assessing future fishery risk, available harvest biomass, and ultimately how much TAC will be fished by the contracting parties (US and Canada).
We will know the answer by the end of next week.
The only TAC that can be carried over from one season to the next is the Commercial Halibut quota holders can carry over up to 10% of their prior season's un-used quota.
The reason the limit was increased to allow retaining 2 small halibut in one day mid season was at that time, available catch data was indicating we were tracking below the expected catch, and if that trend continued we would not use our available TAC. Unfortunately after the decision was made to increase the daily limit, we encountered really good weather which allows more effort to be directed at halibut and also the salmon fishing was so good that people caught their salmon earlier in the day and ventured out halibut fishing. Isn't something that usually takes place. Predicting fishing effort and angler behaviour is very complicated and nearly impossible to get right.
From my read of the IPHC data its looking like the dominant age class that will be catchable in our upcoming fishery will come from the 2012 cohort of spawners. The prior dominant age classes which are now the large fish we encountered are starting to age-out of the fishery, so we will see fewer large fish. More likely the dominant size class will be fish near the 80-90 cm mark in size.
For the IPHC, the conern going forward is there hasn't been a strong signal in the available set line survey data showing another large number of fish coming up from an earlier than the dominant 2012 cohort. There is some emerging evidence that suggests there was a successful spawn in the 2014 spawning cycle - but bit too early to fully assess with confidence. While possibly being some good news, its hard to predict how the IPHC will take that into account when assessing future fishery risk, available harvest biomass, and ultimately how much TAC will be fished by the contracting parties (US and Canada).
We will know the answer by the end of next week.
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wildmanyeah
Crew Member
Good call I’d rather use up the tac then leave it in the water for the commies to carry over
searun
Well-Known Member
The fishery is managed based on catch estimates. In the off-season they double check all the creel, overflight, IRec, Lodge catch log books etc to prepare a final report for IPHC. That takes a lot of time/effort. The estimates are seldom far off the final calculation, so the fishery either closes or we risk having any overage deducted from the 2024 TAC....which is very likely going down. My sense at this early stage without participating in the IPHC meetings next week is best case will be status quo, worst case 15% reduction, likely case will be 10% reduction. Knowing we were likely to be facing TAC reductions would you have rolled the dice on creating a larger overage and future deduction?
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
Oh man 15 reduction hope not.
Eden Island
Well-Known Member
Is it worth taking a run at getting a larger recreational % allocation as I understand Washington and Alaska have? It would take a concerted lobby.
SpringVelocity
Crew Member
A court battle and millions of dollars
scott craven
Well-Known Member
That's why they can keep taking away, there is little to no means of fighting it.
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searun
Well-Known Member
Taking what away? The TAC is determined by the IPHC and once Canada knows our TAC it’s then apportioned based on the 85/15 allocation Rec has to then figure out how we use tools like slot size, season start dates, possession limits to try to spread our available TAC catch to last as full season as we can.
Eden Island
Well-Known Member
But 85/15 is a political decision in Canada, no? With fractions higher than 5% in Washington and Alaska?
scott craven
Well-Known Member
85/15 won't last unless there are provisions to protect it.
I only speak from past experience, and we all know once adjusted we seldom get it back.
