The federal Fisheries Department is planning to introduce new restrictions this month on the West Coast’s popular recreational halibut fishery due to declining stocks of halibut. Reacting on this the local fishermen said this is a move that could “massacre” the fishery and related businesses. Mike Hicks, who operates a lodge and charter fishing business in Port Renfrew, said that these regulations will absolutely devastate little coastal communities like Port Renfrew, Ucluelet and Bamfield. It will be the end of recreational halibut fishing. He added that it will end the recreational halibut fishing.
According to Hicks the department is proposing to reduce the number of halibut that can be caught in a day to one from two, and to place a maximum weight limit of about 11 kilograms on caught halibut, a fish prized for its heft.
Hicks said that the new regulations would affect the halibut industry in Canada badly. The fishermen organization has appealed to the Fisheries and Oceans Minister Loyola Hearn that anglers travel long distances to land a halibut and allowing only a single halibut would discourage them entirely. Eric Kristianson, spokesman for the institute which represents the recreational fishing sector, said that these restrictions is certainly not good for fishing industry.
He asked the commercial fishery to give up some of its quotas to the recreational anglers. The Seattle-based International Pacific Halibut Commission has decreased Canada’s share of the 2008 halibut catch to 4.08-million kilograms from 5.2-million kilograms in 2007. It was done due to decreasing stocks since 2005.
In Canada the commercial halibut fishery gets 88 percent of the annual total while the recreational fishery is allotted 12 percent. However Hicks and the Sport Fishing Institute have welcomed one change the department is considering: limiting access in a fertile halibut area 12 nautical miles off the Vancouver Island coast.
