Halibut, that delectable whitefish so versatile as an entree on dinner tables across America, is also proving one of the treasures that keep cash registers ringing in Alaska's coastal economies.
A new research report by the McDowell Group, conducted for the Halibut Coalition, shows that 40 million pounds of commercially harvested halibut, valued at $83 million, were delivered to ports in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska in 2006. Those deliveries represented 80 percent of a total of 52.2 million pounds of halibut harvested commercially statewide last year.
The Halibut Coalition is an umbrella group of associations and individuals interested in protecting the health of the halibut resource and the interests of commercial halibut fishermen and the communities that support them, said Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association.
“We formed with that goal about a decade ago,” Behnken said.
The coalition includes 10 organizations of fishermen and processor firms, among them the Petersburg Vessel Owners and Alaska Longline Fishermen, plus some 500 individual members. “It's a big group,” she said. “There are a lot of very concerned commercial halibut fishermen.”
Based on an economic model called IMPLAN, which is used to measure or predict the economic impact of industry activity, researchers calculated that the total economic impact generated by the Southeast and Central Gulf halibut fisheries in 2005 was approximately $210 million.
The total estimated asset value of the Southeast and Central Gulf quota held by Alaska residents was $454 million in October 2006, the report said. This included $146 million in Southeast quota owned by residents in communities that were studied, and $249 million in Central Gulf quota.
More important, the study found that residents of the 14 study area communities in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska owned 74 percent of the individual fishing quota in the Central Gulf, known as Area 3A, and Southeastern Alaska, known as Area 2C. The study communities includes the City and Borough of Yakutat, Haines, Juneau, Sitka, Petersburg, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Craig, Valdez, Cordova, Seward, Kenai/Soldotna, Homer, and the Kodiak Island Borough.
The halibut fishery is of huge economic importance to these communities and their fishermen, Behnken said. “It's good to have this information all pulled together,” she said.
“We've always known it was a fishery that was locally important and supports local economies. (The McDowell report) shows the people who own quota share in the two areas are small business, usually community-based fishing families who hold relatively small amounts of quota, that quota being part of a diversified fishing operation,” she said.
While these same families may fish also for salmon, crab and black cod, the halibut fishery buffers them against dips in price in any one fishery, she said.
“Essentially every community in Southeast Alaska is linked to the commercial fishing industry,” the report concluded. “In 2006 halibut deliveries were made to 17 different Southeast Alaska ports.”
Quota holders in the McDowell Group study area communities typically hold relatively small amounts of halibut quota. In most communities, the majority of resident quota holders have fewer than 5,000 pounds of Southeast and Central Gulf of Alaska quota, combined. For this reason, researchers said it safe to assume these quota owners are either also participating in other fisheries or have additional income from other non-fishery employment.
According to the McDowell report, 67 percent of the quota holders owned fewer than 10,000 pounds of quota combined in Southeast and the Central Gulf; 49 percent owned fewer than 5,000 pounds; and 27 percent owned fewer than 1,000 pounds. The initial quota share allocations were based on the individual fisherman's historic participation in the fishery.
Halibut also contributes to the total fishing portfolio of many fishermen around the state, by adding job diversification, the McDowell report found. For example, in the Gulf of Alaska, wintertime jobs fishing for Pacific cod is often paired with spring halibut longlining jobs, in order to attract the best possible crew for the less lucrative cod seasons.
The halibut fishery itself is open for about 10 months a year.
Researchers said the total number of commercial fishermen participating in the Southeast halibut fishery in 2006 could have been as high as 2,000, including crew and skippers. In the Central Gulf fishery, participation could have been as high as 2,600, again including skippers and crew.
Total personal income for vessel owners, quota holders, skippers and crew in Southeast Alaska commercial halibut fisheries in 2005 was an estimated $24 million, compared to $58 million in the Central Gulf, researchers said.
What the report does not talk about is the competition between the commercial and charter halibut fishermen, a sore point for both.
When the charter fleet in Southeast Alaska exceeded the guideline harvest level by 45 percent in 2006, the International Pacific Halibut Commission reacted by lowering the allowable commercial harvest for 2007.
“The charter industry should be managed and learn to live within their allocation. It's a limited resource and everybody has to share in conserving that resource,” said Behnken of the Longline Fishermen's Association.
Jane DiCosimo, senior plan coordinator for the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, said the halibut charter industry in Southeast Alaska has a standard quota of 1.4 million pounds of halibut, set by the council. After that charter quota was substantially exceeded in 2006, the IPHC lowered the entire commercial quota for that area from the 2006 quota of 10.63 million pounds to 8.51 million pounds for 2007.
At its June meeting in Sitka, the North Pacific Fishery Management Council was set to take interim measures to keep the charter halibut catch within the allowed guidelines.
Options being considered included one trip per vessel per day, no retention of halibut by skippers or crew, line limits equal to the number of paying passengers, annual catch limits of four, five or six halibut per person, and one fish per day for a specific month or for the whole season. Other options include two fish within specific size ranges or a combination of any or all of the options.
A system of quota shares for the charter industry is not one of the options at this time, but still on the table for the long term, DiCosimo said. “Right now we are doing interim solutions; these would be in effect starting in 2008,” she said.
In October, the council will do an initial review of similar problems in Southcentral Alaska, with final action to be taken in December, she said.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at
margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.
