Your license is a recordable tag system already for Halibut, chinook salmon, and in some areas for lingcod. That data alone is valuable, but wasted every single year.
The data is not wasted. Last year the iREC survey was changed. Fishers who recorded any halibut catch, where directed to go get their paper or electronic license and provide the actual lengths recorded. There were a number of other very helpful data inputs questioned. We requested the raw iREC files which allowed us to construct a very detailed analysis of where the recreational catch was taking place, by length of halibut, location, multi-day (2fish) limits etc. This is very time consuming - I personally devoted many hours. We just received the 2024 data, and will be constructing a similar analysis. With 2023 and 24, that will help better inform using actual data what size halibut are being caught, where, and we should be able to gain a sense of the effects of 2 fish limits.
Very clearly with the available TAC we have this season, it is impossible to plan a full season structured in the same manner as last season (1 over or 2 unders).
We do know that the biomass has shifted significantly to be dominated by small fish (65 - 90cm). IREC data last year confirmed this as well. The IPHC set line survey data also confirmed this same trend. IPHC stock assessment noted also the commercial catch was dominated by the 2012 and 2016 age cohorts (these same size fish). So, it is likely that if we planned a 2 fish possession regulation option we would use up a lot of TAC quickly because that is the size of fish most available to catch. That being the case, the only option would be to shorten the season (June - Aug) unless we investigate and consider other alternatives that slow down how we use TAC.
We have no prior experience and detailed data for a 1 fish (1/1 possession) option, so the hope is by completing a more detailed analysis of the iREC data it will better inform how the fishery will perform if we considered other options such as 1/1. It will be interesting to see how the 2024 iREC data stacks up once done, and if a 1/1 option could help stretch out the fishery for a longer period. This point is worth repeating - Right now we have less TAC than we used in June - August last year, so clearly we either shorten the season and run it out from June to August, or we identify options that dramatically slow down the use of TAC which might enable us to gain back some of the shoulder season.
Any way we slice it, the old status quo isn't an option so it will be very hard to find a solution that pleases everyone. In that case, the SFAB Halibut survey did indicate a preference for protecting the core season (June to Sept). Anything we can implement to squeeze the TAC and extend the shoulder season out from the core season is a bonus.
Everyone who volunteers on the SFAB Halibut WG knows and appreciates there will be impacts which at this stage of our analysis appears unavoidable as we simply don't have enough TAC. We know that both early and late season opportunities are critically important to different geographic areas and these appear to be in jeopardy. Our desire is to hopefully find some sort of silver bullet to squeeze as much of a season as we can from the available TAC.
