Action Agenda :: Immediate Threats
Halibut
Threat to charter fishing industry
An inadequate allocation to the charter fleet by the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) in October of 2008 would make a one-per-day halibut limit, for all intents and purposes, permanent.
An estimated 30% decline in business that would result from the one-per-day bag limit would marginalize many charter businesses, leaving little option but to begin liquidating assets.
- Local economies would lose the economic benefits of tourism dollars and the effect on values of hard assets such as boats and real estate would be felt by nearly every citizen of Southeast Alaska.
Solution supported by SEAGO
We support the new Charter Halibut Task Force alternative proposal.
The North Pacific Council should continue the two-per-day daily bag limit that has been in place for over three decades.
This bag limit would apply to all recreational harvest throughout Alaska – not only to those anglers who choose to access the resource via a charter vessel.
If conservation required it, the bag limit would be reduced to 1 fish and all fish not harvested would stay in the ocean, not be allocated to commercial fishing.
Remember: The amount of fish required to maintain a healthy, contributing charter industry does not represent a threat to the resource and is less than 10 percent of the Alaska-wide harvest of halibut and roughly half of what is wasted as by catch annually in commercial fisheries.
For More Information
Salmon
SEAGO board member Russell Thomas served on the “Northern Panel” of the U.S.-Canada Treaty renegotiation. Russ keeps SEAGO up-to-date on how the charter industry will be affected and how we can work with the salmon trollers to get the best result possible.
Threat to charter fishing industry –
The new U.S.-Canada Treaty reduced Chinook allocation for Southeast Alaska by 15%.
That reduction could hit us in the form of mid-season changes like you saw in 2008. Can you and your customers tolerate that kind of uncertainty in regulations into the future?
SEAGO supports a fair and balanced Chinook Plan at the Board of Fisheries and will work hard to see that such a plan keeps our businesses healthy while ensuring conservation of Chinook stocks.
If you have any creative solutions, please let us know!
- SEAGO supports efforts to restore and rebuild runs in the Lower 48. However, this needs to be science-based and we do not support Alaska passing on historic opportunities to harvest Chinook only to see those fish caught and killed down the line. Conservation in Southeast Alaska should result in increased escapement in the Lower 48, not in bigger harvests.
For More Information
Demersal Shelf Rockfish (DSR)
Threat to charter fishing industry –
The 2006 Board of Fisheries decision to allocation only 16% of the DSR quota paints the charter fishery into a corner.
While the stated intent of the allocation is not to shut down our fishing efforts, the fact that DSR cannot be released alive means our bycatch of Yelloweye and the other six DSR could force large-scale open ocean closures during our season.
This has already happened in the lower 48. Imagine your prime halibut grounds off-limits due to DSR bycatch.
Solution proposed by SEAGO
Work with scientists and the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to develop methods of survivable release for DSR and developing methods of fishing that would be more halibut selective.
Work for a conservation-oriented DSR plan at the Board of Fisheries that allocates the minimum amount of DSR to allow the charter industry to effectively catch its halibut, salmon, and bottom-fish without wide-scale disruption
For More Information