By Margaret Bauman
Alaska Journal of Commerce

It was a good year for Alaska's commercial halibut fleet, with record high prices to fishermen, somewhat compensating them for the allowable catch being cut as a conservation measure.

Holiday halibut packages for sale on Internet Web sites were selling for about $30 a pound.

Still unsettled, however, was the controversy between the commercial and halibut charter operators, the latter taking an increasing amount of fish.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted at its December meeting in Anchorage to continue analysis with the goal of keeping the fishery sustainable in the midst of increasing demand. An initial review of the analysis is scheduled for February, with final action later that year, and implementation unlikely prior to 2010.

High prices aside, the average person crewing on a commercial halibut vessel made less money in 2007, due to reduced harvest levels imposed by the International Pacific Halibut Commission, for stock conservation. And halibut could be even pricier in 2008, as total overall harvests are cut from 65.17 million pounds in 2007 to 59.24 million pounds in 2008.

In Alaska that includes a catch of 6.21 million halibut for area 2C in Southeast Alaska, down from 8.51 million in 2007, while the recommended catch reduction for Southcentral Alaska is 24.22 million pounds, down from 26.20 million.

The cuts were recommended by the scientific staff at the IPHC and are to be finalized by the IPHC in January.

Linda Behnken of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association in Sitka said the commercial fleet is counting on the IPHC and the federal council to start including charter boat owners in conservation issues.

New limits on charter halibut harvests this year werent enough, Behnken said, but more restrictive measures must be approved by the Interior Department before they can go into effect in 2008.

Federal fisheries officials said earlier this year that regulatory changes are necessary to reduce the halibut harvest in the charter vessel sector while minimizing negative impacts on this sector, its angler clients, and the coastal communities that serve as home ports for the fishery. The intent of the proposed changes is to reduce the amount of halibut harvested by the guided sport charter vessel sector.