According to the press release of NOAA Fisheries public opinions are invited on a proposed program designed to limit the number of charter boats in the guided sport halibut fishery in Southeast Alaska and the central Gulf of Alaska. It is also told that the guided sport charter halibut sector has been growing steadily in recent years.
Acting Regional Administrator Doug Mecum explained that the proposed limited access program is intended to stabilize the guided charter sector while maintaining access to the halibut charter fishery for small rural coastal communities. He informed that under the proposed program permits would be issued to qualifying individuals or businesses that documented fishing trips during a qualifying year (2004 or 2005) and a recent participation year (probably 2007 or 2008) in their logbooks.
The halibut guide business operators would be required to hold a permit for each boat they use to provide their charter clients with halibut fishing trips. The charter halibut permit holders would be subject to limits on the number of permits they could hold and on the number of charter boat anglers who could catch and retain halibut on their charter boats. It is also said that in this program newcomers could enter the charter halibut fishery only if they were able to purchase an existing permit; this permits could be issued to community quota groups representing specific rural communities; this also permits would be endorsed for fishing only in a specific International Pacific Halibut Commission management area.
The program also permits would be endorsed for the maximum number of clients on the boat Unguided or independent sport fishermen and subsistence fishermen would not be included under the proposed charter halibut limited access program. The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted to develop the proposed limited access program for the sport charter halibut fishery in March, 2007.
