The decision of NPFMC questioned the people who think the fish resources of Alaska belong to the commercial fishing industry. The council has decided, in all its wisdom, that the two halibut Joe is now allowed to catch from a charter boat in Southeast Alaska is one too many. It is told that all the tens of thousands of Joes, plus a fair number of Janes, will be forced to split a maximum of about 15 percent of the allowable halibut harvest while the commercial fishing elite, of whom there are a comparative handful, will get 85 percent.
Henry Mitchell, executive director of SEAGO, the Southeast Alaska Guides Organization, revealed that the decision is one of the stinkiest things he has ever seen the council do. He added that it really means those who were first in line and got quota shares own (the fishery), which set bad precedent. It is fact that commercial fishing in Alaska today is safer because of IFQs.
It is said that allowing commercial fishermen to provide fresh fish to the market over a longer period of time, IFQs raised the value of the halibut to commercial fishermen. It sis also told that at the council meeting, commercial fishermen didn’t just lobby for a one-fish limit in Southeast. Kimberly Tebrugge of the Charter Halibut Task Force, informed that some of them wanted that one fish limited to a halibut of a certain size.
Experts believe that the decision could increase the Cook Inlet catch and speed the progression toward a one-limit fish here. Then almost every Joe Sixpack angler in Anchorage will suffer. Mitchell said that the commercial guys are going after the charter boat interests now, but eventually they will get to the average angler.
