2016 charter and commercial halibut season opens; Regulations in immediate effect
March 19, 2016
At its annual meeting in January, the IPHC recommended to the governments of Canada and the United States catch limits for 2016 totaling 29.89 million pounds, a 2.3 percent increase from last year. Alaska's total halibut catch was set at 21.45 million pounds, up 235,000 pounds from 2015. For commercial and charter halibut fishers in Alaska, the following regulations are in effect: In Area 2C (Southeast Alaska):
In Area 3A (Southcentral Alaska):
Unguided halibut sport fishers in Alaska will continue to observe a daily bag limit of 2 fish any size per person per day. This season, NOAA Fisheries' electronic Groundfish/Individual Fishing Quota Daily Fishing Longline and Pot Gear logbook has been added to the list of acceptable logbooks for use in the Alaska commercial halibut fishery. The IPHC approved the exemption of halibut bearing external IPHC tags from sport daily bag or possession limits, size limits, and season restrictions, and from personal use and subsistence daily bag or catch limits. Such tagged halibut are already exempt from commercial limits, and this change was made to ensure IPHC receives information from all tagged halibut that are caught. The IPHC web site has instructions for handling tagged halibut at http://www.iphc.int/faqs.html. The IPHC authorized longline pot gear as legal gear for the commercial halibut fishery in Alaska when NMFS' regulations permit the use of this gear in the sablefish individual fishing quota fishery. NMFS is currently developing a proposed rule to implement a recommendation by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to authorize longline pot gear in the Gulf of Alaska sablefish individual fishing quota fishery. The commercial fishery season dates are March 19 through November 7, 2016 for all areas in Alaska.
Edited by Mary Kauffman, SitNews
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