Posted: 1/19/2007 8:32:29 PM EDT
www.adn.com/money/industries/fishing/story/8574458p-8467573c.html
Panel seeks to reduce halibut charter catch
By ELIZABETH BLUEMINK
Anchorage Daily News
Published: January 19, 2007
Last Modified: January 19, 2007 at 03:29 PM
In a historic vote, an international panel decided today to reduce the Southeast and Southcentral Alaska charter-boat halibut bag limit to one fish per day per angler in part of the summer.
The vote will not take effect unless approved by the U.S. secretary of commerce.
The current charter bag limit is two halibut, and sportfishing groups say they don't think Alaskans or tourists will buy $200-plus charter-boat trips if they can catch only one fish.
It's the first time in history that the six-member International Pacific Halibut Commission has flexed its authority to reduce bag limits for halibut in Alaska, said Bruce Leaman, the commission's executive director.
The commission took the controversial step because, so far, U.S. authorities have been unable to keep the charter fleet from exceeding its harvest limits, he said. Commercial fishermen urged the bag-limit cut, saying the growing charter catch is cutting into their harvest.
The joint U.S.-Canadian commission, based in Seattle and established in 1923, voted in Victoria, British Columbia, to reduce the charter bag limit in Southcentral Alaska to one fish from June 15 to June 30 and in Southeast from June 15 to the end of July.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council could forestall the one-fish bag limit if it finds its own method to keep the charter halibut industry from exceeding its harvest limits, Leaman said.
However, the council would need to find a solution by June 15, and the council had already stated that it probably wouldn't be able to resolve the issue in time for this year's halibut season.
The council told the international panel in December that it plans to take steps to keep the halibut-charter fleet within its harvest limits in time for the 2008 charter season. |
THis sucks. It sucks all around. The implications of this are going to be staggering and affect the tourism trade and hurt the economy. This is big, and it needs to be stopped. Things are already getting bad because of the tension between the charters and longliners who go in and wipe nearby areas clean, when they used to go out to more fertile halibut grounds a ways out, now they start dropping lines within sight of Seward.
arrrrrrg.
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