Federal fisheries officials took aggressive action June 1 to head off excessive harvests of halibut by clients of sport charter vessels in Southeastern Alaska, imposing new regulations for the remainder of the season.
NOAA Fisheries officials said, however, that these new regulations could be superseded by charter halibut fishing management measures under consideration during the first week of June by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, meeting in Sitka. The federal panel had the matter on its agenda because the Southeast Alaska halibut charter fleet continues to exceed its harvest guideline.
Doug Mecum, acting administrator for NOAA's Alaska Region, said the new regulations keep the current sport fishing bag limit of two halibut per day but require that, if two fish are taken, at least one of them is no more than 32 inches long. “Enforcement officers must be able to accurately measure the fish,” Mecum said. “It can be filleted, but the entire carcass, with the head and tail as a single piece, must be retained onboard until all the fillets are offloaded.”
The new regulations apply only to halibut harvested by anglers fishing from a vessel with a hired operator in International Pacific Halibut Commission Area 2C in Southeast Alaska. The complete new regulations were published in the Federal Register on June 4 and posted at www.fakr.noaa.gov.
The charter halibut fishing season ends Dec. 31.
The intended effect of the new regulations is a reduction in halibut poundage harvested by the guided sport charter vessel sector in Area 2C, while minimizing negative impacts on the sector, its sport fishing clients, and the coastal communities that serve as home ports for the fishery, NOAA officials said.
Alaska Fish and Game Commissioner Denby Lloyd said the state appreciates the efforts of NOAA Fisheries to modify the one-fish bag limit that the Halibut Commission proposed.
“This new regulation will help stabilize charter harvests in Southeast Alaska without being as onerous as the commission's proposal; it will retain domestic management of the fishery; and we are confident it will result in fewer negative impacts on state-managed species.”
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game estimates that the 32-inch maximum size restriction for one of two potential halibut taken by charter vessel clients would reduce the overall harvest in Area 2C by the charter vessel sector by about 518,000 pounds.
Margaret Bauman can be reached at
margie.bauman@alaskajournal.com.
