Tag Archives: halibut fishery
DFO and fishing vessel safety – A Damning Indictment of its safety culture
Fisheries and Oceans’ decision not to extend the halibut fishery in the Gulf of St. Lawrence for the province’s inshore harvesters who didn’t catch their quotas due to poor weather is a damning incitement of its safety culture, says Merv Wiseman, an outspoken search and rescue advocate. “DFO is telling fishermen if you don’t go to sea because of bad weather you’re going to lose your fish,”,,, “Putting extra pressure on fishermen to make decisions contrary to safety is a recipe for disaster that we’ve seen play out too many times.” A Transportation Safety Board report into the 2016 drowning of four Shea Heights fishermen found they took a risk in going out in questionable weather in order to land their weekly cod quota, and to recover fishing gear before deadline. >click to read< 07:34
Halibut fishery poised to open as NMFS works on 2018 catch limits
Alaska’s halibut fishery is set to open this month, but the final quota was still not completely set as of March 14, even as fishermen began to receive permits in the mail. Indications, however, are that the quota will decrease this year compared to last. Under regulations published by the National Marine Fisheries Service this month, the fishery will open March 24 and run through Nov. 7. But the total catch limits remain unknown. That’s because this year, for just the second time in the commission’s history that dates to its creation by a 1923 treaty, the International Pacific Halibut Commission could not come to an agreement about the 2018 catch limits at its annual meeting. >click to read<12:36
Halibut fishermen in Bristol Bay had their best season in several years this summer.
BBEDC Regional Fisheries Director Gary Cline said some would consider this summer a surprisingly good one for halibut, given the decline in quota seen in much of the state in recent years. “It was nice to see the halibut fishery start to rebuild, comparing the last several seasons, and this year the ex-vessel value came about to be approximately $226,205 dollars,” Cline said. That estimate is for the nearshore fishery in Area 4E, prosecuted by local fishermen who access the quota through BBEDC. “So we had 17 fishermen and they delivered 45,000 pounds, roughly, which was the biggest volume since 2007,” Cline said. Listen, Read the rest here 18:31
David Bayes: Major bycatch reduction essential to halibut fishery
In recent seasons, halibut users across the state have been tightening their belts. Biologists tell us that, though the total number of halibut in Alaska’s waters is at a very sustainable rate, those halibut are now growing more slowly than usual. Since halibut are regulated based upon the “total number of pounds in the sea,” rather than “total number of fish in the sea,” the longline and charter fleets are facing allocation cutbacks. Read the rest here 16:27
Weather slows halibut opener, first prices similar to 2013
Commercial halibut fishers began targeting 16.7 million pounds of quota March 8, but bad weather kept many off the fishing grounds. Individual fishing quota, or IFQ, holders will take the majority of the Alaska commercial catch limit, about 15.9 million pounds, with Community Development Quota landings from the Bering Sea areas making up the remainder of the catch. Read more here 13:36
Northern Peninsula Fishermen – union is trying to shut them out of halibut fishery – FFAW rep Jason Spingle “union is just trying to give everyone a fair crack”
Part of the anger is that fishermen file their applications through the FFAW, and they say they feel like the union is working with the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to get people out of the fishery. continued@thetelegram
