International Pacific Halibut Commission staff has recommended smaller fishing limits for most of Alaska. The commission has decided to slash the halibut catch limit in southeast Alaska. It is the third year in a row that the fishermen of this are facing such cuts in catch limit. The IPHC staff released draft recommendations last week for a 2009 catch of 4.47 million pounds, a 28 percent reduction from this year’s 6.21 million pounds.
Bruce Leaman, the commission’s director, said that there is no question that this is fairly painful right now. It is said that the IPHC is recommending that the overall Pacific catch limit be 54.01 million pounds, down from this year’s 60.40 million pounds. Commission staff are also recommending smaller catch limits everywhere except in part of the Gulf of Alaska and the outer Aleutians, areas 3B and 4B.
It is told that last year, the commission’s scientists changed how they assess the abundance of halibut. Leaman said that in general, they learned they’d been underestimating halibut abundance in western Alaska and overestimating it in the east, including Southeast, in the past decade. As a result, the eastern fisheries were overexploited.
Leaman opined that he was optimistic that by about 2011 to 2015, as younger halibut begin to mature, fishery stocks may start to increase. Kathy Hansen, executive director of the Southeast Alaska Fishermen’s Alliance, said that halibut prices may go down next year. Mike Erickson of Alaska Glacier Seafoods Inc., said that people are not kicking the doors to buy halibut this year.
