Early Halibut Opening

I know we don't want to give up anything, but 10 halibut a year per license? That's a lot of fish!

If you have a family to feed, I'm betting you have another license in the boat.
 
Survey has hundreds of responses. Sfac in Victoria is largest in bc. And yet still survey of fishers disagrees with what you’re saying.
Then there is something wrong with the survey or the way the questions are interpreted, south island HAS ALWAYS BEEN A MARCH to MAY fishery. its even mentioned at the local SFAB meetings . little confused by your comments as they are not accurate
 
I think an 80cm Halibut would be just fine to keep the season open all year for everyone. If you want more there is the option to lease quota and take any amount and size you want. The same groups, organizations, and people that asked us to write letters and voice our opinions to increase opportunity and open up more areas, in order to keep small coastal towns alive, are now telling us to do just the opposite. Of course the north coast only wants a short season because it's controlled by the big lodges that only open June, July, August. What really needs to happen is to get more of the allowable catch quota shifted to the rec side. Then there would be know squableing. The rec side should have a set amount of poundage that allows for a full season every year, with a 90/145 limit.
Good observations. We are still digging through the data to identify options. There are no decisions being made. Everything is on the table, including applying what we heard from SFAB participants all ends of the coast from North Coast to South Coast.

Hard to keep everyone's special circumstances exactly satisfied in a very low TAC regime. There are many levers to use to potentially find a best fit balance point between those interests. The objective is to plan a fishery that by the numbers has a realistic chance of not exceeding our available TAC resulting in another year where we close earlier than planned and have the overage deducted.

Digging deeper into the numbers, there are some potential savings to be realized that provide interesting opportunity. In a biomass regime dominated by mostly small younger age classes, there are some savings that can come from 1/1 options to mitigate the impact of 2 small fish in possession options.
 
When they tell me im restricted in size to save the “breeders” then allow commercial guys to keep those same “breeders”….every decision that follows is suspect to me.
You have never been restricted in size to save the breeders. Only restricted to make our share of the tac stretch out for a full season. The fishery minister controls who gets the tac.
 
A few years ago, I was invited along with two other charter operators (Blue Wolf & Foghorn) to attend a DFO, SFAB meeting to discuss the halibut catch ratio.

We were brought in to discuss which days in each month were fishable for halibut in areas 19/20. They wanted to know how many days in an average month can you fish for halibut successfully. It was determined that out of 30 days there would be a possible -11 days to anchor and get your gear to bottom to catch halibut. Specially if you are fishing in 300ft + of water.

Attached is the 2021 DFO catch summary report for 20 different areas.

Area 19 total take is 33,552lb / 4.2% of the total PFMA.
Area 20 total take is 13,615lb / 1.7% of the total PFMA.

If you combined 19/20 they have a total take of 5.9%. There are 7 single areas that have a higher % catch than both 19/20 combined. Area 4 catches more halibut in July than 19/20 catch all year.

Take a look at the attached summary catch numbers and you will have a better understanding of when and where the halibut are being caught.
 

Attachments

  • 2021 halibut catch % per area..jpg
    2021 halibut catch % per area..jpg
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The amount of TAC taken in February march April may is a fart in a dust storm compared to June July aug ,,, it comes down to certain users not wanting to share plain and simple and THEY will vote and push their will to get there way .trust me on that..
As stated before Roy. There seems to be a small group of folks that aren't understanding what the possible size need to be able to open early.. No decisions have been made and we are waiting on best data available to guide us the come the best decision for the majority. I would say seeing the same bad actors on here hurling the same insults that we have heard before makes me really wondering how many of those folks have the hali XRQ ...so not caring what size it takes to get it open. They just need it open to use it or in a lot of cases abusive it ...food for thought folks.. Not sure how we have a quality fishery with a max size 75 cm ish hali.. 🤔
 
I think i missed the Survey! Can we take a year off if its a late start…compile TAC to 2026 for area 19/20. 😂

The June Dogfish herds would really appreciate it in Victoria. Not that the triple header dogfish action we had last season wasn't exciting and all. Pretty sure they chewed a few anchors off.

I really hope the flyovers were not counting the Doggies as halibut efforts…If they were they would know the stocks are very healthy!
 
I think i missed the Survey! Can we take a year off if its a late start…compile TAC to 2026 for area 19/20. 😂

The June Dogfish herds would really appreciate it in Victoria. Not that the triple header dogfish action we had last season wasn't exciting and all. Pretty sure they chewed a few anchors off.

I really hope the flyovers were not counting the Doggies as halibut efforts…If they were they would know the stocks are very healthy!
The data doesn’t support that it’s only dogfish in June. Look at data please. And welcome to a lot of places in bc. Dogfish happen everywhere.

Also. I’ll bold it as no one has answered this yet. What’s the point of the survey with hundreds of respondents if we don’t listen to it because it doesn’t go with one areas wishes? Seriously.
 
As stated before Roy. There seems to be a small group of folks that aren't understanding what the possible size need to be able to open early.. No decisions have been made and we are waiting on best data available to guide us the come the best decision for the majority. I would say seeing the same bad actors on here hurling the same insults that we have heard before makes me really wondering how many of those folks have the hali XRQ ...so not caring what size it takes to get it open. They just need it open to use it or in a lot of cases abusive it ...food for thought folks.. Not sure how we have a quality fishery with a max size 75 cm ish hali.. 🤔
I totally understand the reality of a full season with small halibut. The reality is small independent charter operators like myself and our small towns will suffer if the season is closed. I've never purchased Quota but if I have to, to stay in business I certainly will. We need an organization that will take our case to Ottawa and get us more tac.
 
Anyone that is upset about a size restriction can always fish the Halibut openers down in Washington state. You can keep any size.
 
Like Alberta thinks their natural resources are for ALL Canadians?

Why?? Seriously what is the point of this comment? You just love political division, & stoke the flames. Who the heck are you to speak for ~4.5MM Canadians who live with in a provincial boundary? Typical mouth breather
 
I would say seeing the same bad actors on here hurling the same insults that we have heard before makes me really wondering how many of those folks have the hali XRQ ...so not caring what size it takes to get it open. They just need it open to use it or in a lot of cases abusive it ..🤔

So Deryk, anyone that disagrees with your approach are now "bad actors" and potential poachers?

Nice... NOT!
NotHappy.gif
 
The data doesn’t support that it’s only dogfish in June. Look at data please. And welcome to a lot of places in bc. Dogfish happen everywhere.

Also. I’ll bold it as no one has answered this yet. What’s the point of the survey with hundreds of respondents if we don’t listen to it because it doesn’t go with one areas wishes? Seriously.
You could be right about hundreds of replies, but it would have more impact if we were to see the sample size, question composition and the results. Other than that, you’re right “whats the point of the survey”. I tried looking it up and kept getting one from 2008 I think it was. My point is showing the question, how it was phrased and disseminated to the 300,000 fishers is a useful tool for determining a margin of error and accuracy.You’ve obviously seen the results so would DFO be the Agency that holds those results?
 
You could be right about hundreds of replies, but it would have more impact if we were to see the sample size, question composition and the results. Other than that, you’re right “whats the point of the survey”. I tried looking it up and kept getting one from 2008 I think it was. My point is showing the question, how it was phrased and disseminated to the 300,000 fishers is a useful tool for determining a margin of error and accuracy.You’ve obviously seen the results so would DFO be the Agency that holds those results?
All the more reason for those that have access to this survey to share it with everyone!!
 
You could be right about hundreds of replies, but it would have more impact if we were to see the sample size, question composition and the results. Other than that, you’re right “whats the point of the survey”. I tried looking it up and kept getting one from 2008 I think it was. My point is showing the question, how it was phrased and disseminated to the 300,000 fishers is a useful tool for determining a margin of error and accuracy.You’ve obviously seen the results so would DFO be the Agency that holds those results?

dfo holds meetings to consult the public that anyone can go to, that's the method they have chosen, you can go to them or you can email the dfo minister with your concerns.

DFO is responsible for those consultations not anonymous people on a fishing fourm.
 
Can one of the SFAB members that post regularly on this forum please provide us with tor the link to the report that summarizes this halibut survey? Thank you!
reach out to your Victoria SFAC chair and I'm sure he can help you out there.. you already know that.
 
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There must be a lot more pressure on ground fish with all the new salmon restrictions. The only long term solution is a change to the allocation of TAC. We simply do not have enough for rec sector. How to fix that is the big question.
Leasing quota is not a sustainable solution.
 
You could be right about hundreds of replies, but it would have more impact if we were to see the sample size, question composition and the results. Other than that, you’re right “whats the point of the survey”. I tried looking it up and kept getting one from 2008 I think it was. My point is showing the question, how it was phrased and disseminated to the 300,000 fishers is a useful tool for determining a margin of error and accuracy.You’ve obviously seen the results so would DFO be the Agency that holds those results?
A simple question... are you a member of your area sfac? yes or no and same question to many of you others who have been around on this forum for many years and who have been told many many many times the same thing! You don't have to go all the meeting actually just a couple to be a voting member. After that you will get the update information that I/we receive from the SFAB and DFO on what is going on. You don't have to like it but it's the most up date info. Man this thread is just like groundhog day with the same haters as before..
 
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