The federal panel set aside 14 hours of its Oct. 1-7 meeting for testimony, discussion and a final vote on a catch-sharing plan for Southeast and the Central Gulf of Alaska and determining guideline harvest level management measures for the Central Gulf.

When the council rescinded the charter fleet's individual fishing quota program in December 2005, it agreed to manage the charter sector in Southeast and the Central Gulf to guideline harvests levels published in the Federal Register. The council also agreed to develop a plan to address certain reallocation issues and to establish a mechanism for the transfer of longline quota between the two sectors.

A halibut charter stakeholder committee was formed and the council subsequently approved a limited entry permit program for the charter sector in April 2007. This plan, to be implemented in 2010, was developed by the charter sector representatives of the stakeholder committee. It specifically addresses concerns of charter operators for economic stability by prohibiting entry into the fishery by any charter operator who does not meet qualifying criteria.

In a letter sent Sept. 26 to council chairman Eric Olson, the Halibut Coalition, which represents hundreds of commercial fishermen, vessel owners, processors and others, protested action of charter operators, who now want the council to delay action on the catch sharing plan and consider another proposal.

In a letter to members of the council written Sept. 24, the commercial setline sector told the council that recently released information indicates that the Southeast charter fishery has now exceeded its guideline harvest level by nearly 10 percent, triggering the need for immediate implementation of effective harvest restrictions to protect the resource and other halibut sectors from charter overharvest.

Postponing final action to consider this or any other new proposal will confirm that the council process is broken, wrote Linda Behnken, of the Halibut Coalition. Behnken is also the director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association and a former member of the council.

“As the council is well aware, delaying action creates the explosive conflicts that are now tearing apart Southeast communities,” Behnken said in an earlier letter, written on behalf of ALFA.

Behnken said it was critical that the council clarify its intent to keep harvests within guideline levels and address concerns that exceeding the guideline harvest level puts at risk other fishermen who depend on the resource for food, sport or livelihood.

The Charter Halibut Task Force, which represents charter-fishing operators, meanwhile, plans to propose a new charter halibut management, one it claims has advantages over the one before the council.

The task force argues that this year, the International Pacific Halibut Commission endorsed a coastwide approach to halibut stocks, reapportioning the harvest of more than 3 million of halibut away from setliners in Southeast Alaska to commercial harvesters in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

The task force, on behalf of the Alaska Charter Association, Southeast Alaska Guides Organization, Alaska Outdoor Council and the Recreational Fishing Alliance, alleges that a two halibut a day limit for all recreational fishermen, guided and unguided, with no annual or slot limit, would treat all recreational anglers equally and still leave commercial fishermen with 80 percent or more of the halibut coastwide.

The task forces argues that while setliners have advocated for a one halibut daily limit for conservation reasons, in actuality reducing the recreational fishing bag limits will not keep any additional halibut in the ocean, and the additional fish will be reallocated by the IPHC to the longline fishery.

“It would be neither environmentally responsible nor good for our businesses if the charter industry was seeking a two-fish limit when the resource was in danger,” said Scott Van Valin, a lodge owner and co-founder of the task force.

Charter operators did not address the charge from the longliners that the charter operators exceeded their guideline harvest level.