ALFA Staff
Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?
Why Are Alaska’s Rivers Turning Orange?
ALFA Staff
Halibut Catch Sharing Plan Update
Halibut Catch Sharing Plan Update

Sablefish Catch Limits

NPFMC Adopts Sablefish Allowable Biological Catch (ABC) Limits
Listed in Tonnes

Region                           2015 ABC       2015 Catch       2016 ABC

Western GOA              1473                  1012                  1272

Central GOA                4658                 4570                4023

West Yakutat               1708                  1802                 1475

South East Outside     2682                  2822                2317

Total GOA                    10521                 10206              9087

ACTION ALERT: Comment to the Council on Halibut Management Framework and Abundance Based Management for Halibut Bycatch

The Council is scheduled to tackle these two halibut issues at their December meeting in Anchorage.  Comments were due by 5 pm December 1st

Let the Council know that more needs to be done to protect the halibut resource, fisheries, and communities.  Remind the Council that in June Council members stated their action on Bering Sea bycatch was  “just the first step.” 

Illustrate your concern with these facts:

a.    The current estimated halibut biomass represents the lowest biomass level since 1996 when Congress passed the Sustainable Fisheries Act.

b.     The current female spawning biomass is about half as large as it was during the 1980’s and early 1990’s.

c.     Over the past decade, bycatch mortality in the BSAI has increased to 60% of total removals while directed fishery landings have decreased to about 30% of removals.  Bycatch in 4CDE accounts for 87% of total mortality.

d.    At present, the IPHC can only reduce harvest in the directed fisheries to offset bycatch impacts—as a result bycatch receives priority over the directed fisheries. 

e.  The Bering Sea is the nursery ground for halibut that eventually migrate to all other areas.  Bering Sea bycatch hurts the halibut resource and all who depend on that resource.      

ASK the Council to make the halibut resource and directed halibut fisheries the PRIORITY and REDUCE BYCATCH.   Email comments to: npfmc.comments@noaa.gov


https://npfmc.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=4146206&GUID=D5244F3B-0B44-495E-AEF6-88E3AC869BAB

C9 Abundance-Based BSAI PSC Limits.pdf
https://npfmc.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=4151899&GUID=F25FD055-CBAB-4640-BACB-DA14F1D9BEE4 

D2 Halibut Retention in Sablefish Pots - Discussion Paper
https://npfmc.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=4145836&GUID=AAA67DD2-1023-4864-94D6-4E63FE7C51A1
 

D4 Halibut/Sablefish IFQ Program Review - Review Outline
https://npfmc.legistar.com/View.ashx?M=F&ID=4146217&GUID=D10F2919-F98C-4E83-BCEC-6C6922C8EB97 

ACTION ALERT: Halibut Charter RQE

Hi All,                                                  

The December meeting of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council is loaded with halibut issues. Between December 10th and 14th the Council will address not one but four halibut issues with potential to impact your fishery.  Please consider attending the Council meeting to testify and safeguard both the resource and your investments.  If you cannot attend the meeting, please send comments!  

Issues before the Council include: 1) Halibut charter RQE; 2) Halibut (bycatch) Framework; 3) Retention of halibut in pots, and 4) Review of halibut/sablefish IFQ program.  Watch for additional action alerts later this week on items 2-4.

The Halibut Charter Regional Quota Entity (RQE) program- (aka the CATCH Plan) - would allow the charter sector to form one or two non-profit entities with authority to purchase halibut QS in Areas 2C and 3A.  The entities would use federal funds, state loans, private grants or a tax on charter clients to purchase commercial quota, and then make this quota available to charter clients.  Proponents claim that the current charter allocation “may not be sufficient to ensure long-term planning and stability in regulation for all guided anglers.”

Although it is significant that the charter sector is looking to purchase rather than take more quota, the proposed “market-based mechanism” only allows the charter sector’s share of the halibut pie to increase (and the commercial slice to decrease) and pits outside funding against individual commercial fishermen in the QS market—i.e., charter operators have no skin in the game and the charter sector has nothing to lose.   The rationale also ignores the fact that at these low levels of abundance commercial fishermen, processors, suppliers and consumers also have insufficient halibut quota—that’s just the reality of resource conservation.  Finally, RQE proponents ignore the impact of the proposal on halibut QS prices and entry-level costs.

On December 10th and 12th the Advisory Panel and the Council will take testimony on proceeding with the Halibut Charter RQE.  YOUR COMMENTS ARE IMPORTANT! Please take time to write a letter or email to the Council by 5PM December 1.  Points to hit in your letter:

 

1.    Identify your comments as Agenda item:  C6 Halibut Charter RQE

2.    Your position on the halibut RQE proposal.

3.    Your view on whether quota available to the commercial sector at current low levels of halibut abundance is “sufficient.”

4.    Your view on social-economic impacts of the RQE proposal on the commercial fishing industry, remote coastal communities, processors, subsistence users, and consumers who purchase halibut in stores or restaurants.

5.    Your thoughts on the effect of adding another well-financed buyer to the halibut QS pool.  

6.    Your demand for a true market based mechanism—i.e., if the charter fleet can buy quota from commercial fishermen, then commercial fishermen should be allowed to purchase charter permits and move quota back into the commercial sector. 

 

End by reminding the Council that halibut fishermen worked for TWENTY YEARS to get the halibut charter catch sharing plan (CSP) in place and that reopening the allocation issue after only two years of the CSP is both unacceptable and enormously destabilizing to the commercial industry.  Send comments to: npfmc.comments@noaa..gov

 

Background materials (October 2014):  
FINAL MOTION: CATCH Charter Halibut 1014.pdf    

D2 CATCH Discussion Paper.pdf

 

ALFA Awarded Rapid Response Grant from the Alaska Conservation Foundation

ALFA has been awarded a $7500 Rapid Response Grant from the Alaska Conservation Foundation!  This grant will support ALFA’s work to create a new paradigm for halibut bycatch management that protects the future productivity of the halibut resource and the fishermen and fishing communities who depend on that resource.  ALFA is working with scientists at the International Pacific Halibut Commission and University of Alaska as well as fishing organizations from across the State to build a new halibut management model that recognizes the importance of small fish to the future of the stock,  provides incentives to protect small fish from catch and bycatch, and accurately captures the cultural and economic importance of the halibut resource.

The timely support of the Alaska Conservation Foundation will allow ALFA and project partners with rapidly advance this important work.

USCG: Unapproved Lights on Vessels

The US Coast Guard posted an alert regarding unapproved lights on recreational and commercial vessels. Particularly since the advent of light emitting diodes (LEDs), lights in addition to required navigation lights are being installed on vessels. Navigation lights must meet regulatory requirements relating to intensity, color, and location. All other lights on vessels must not be mistaken for navigation lights, not impair the visibility or distinctive character of navigation lights, and not interfere with the operator’s ability to maintain a proper lookout. Safety Alert 10-15  

http://www.uscg.mil/hq/cg5/cg545/alerts/1015.pdf

ALFA Letter to the Editor in the Sitka Daily Sentinel Regarding Halibut Bycatch

STOP BYCATCH AND WASTE OF ALASKA’S HALIBUT

In 2014, trawl fisheries killed and discarded seven times more halibut in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands than halibut fishermen landed in the same area.  That’s 1.05 million halibut killed as bycatch in trawls versus 149,000 halibut harvested by directed halibut fishermen.  

How did we get to this point?  Halibut abundance has declined over the past 15 years, and the International Pacific Halibut Commission has steadily reduced halibut quotas to conserve and protect this iconic species.  In contrast, halibut bycatch caps, or the amount of halibut trawlers can kill as bycatch, have not been measurably reduced for 20 years.  As a result, halibut have been steadily reallocated to the trawl fleet—to be killed and wasted as bycatch.  

Why should Sitkan’s care about bycatch in the Bering Sea?  First, because most Sitka residents care about sustainable resource use and healthy fishing communities no matter where they are; and second, because the Bering Sea is the nursery ground for all North Pacific halibut.  In fact, 70-90% of juvenile halibut tagged in the Bering Sea are later recovered in the Gulf of Alaska—from waters off Kodiak to Ketchikan and as far south as California.  Quite simply, what happens in the Bering Sea effects everyone who depends on or cares about the halibut resource.

 And in Alaska, that is a lot of people.  Approximately 2,000 Alaskans are licensed to commercially harvest halibut in the North Pacific, and each employ on average two additional people as crew.  Halibut is delivered into 32 Alaska communities each year, where is it processed and shipped to a primarily domestic market.  Over 4,700 Alaskans harvest halibut for subsistence and hundreds more sportfish for halibut in Alaska.  

What can you do to stop the waste?  During the first week of June the North Pacific Fishery Management Council will meet IN SITKA.  Prominent on the Council’s agenda is final action on an amendment to reduce halibut bycatch in the Bering Sea.  ALFA and other halibut groups are calling for a 50% reduction in halibut bycatch caps.  The Council welcomes both written and oral testimony.  Written comments can be sent to npfmc.comment@noaa.gov and must be submitted before May 22.  Oral testimony will start on June 4th.  Need more information?  Please visit the ALFA website at www.alfafish.org and look for the Halibut Fact Sheet posted on the home page.  

Linda Behnken
Executive Director, Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association

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