Halibut Opening and politics of it.

[trophywife]

open thread to halibut comments. bring it. i quite like reading the opinions and effects. the other thread got closed.

 

[Hardy Guy]

I'm not happy with the 102 but there is no way everyone will be happy with the reduced TAC causing nanagement measures..... so ..... I'll just shut up and fish .

 

[SpringVelocity]

My honest opinion away from SFAC as an angler who doesn't make money off resource. Here goes:

I wasn't a fan of the halibut decision and for my area in Nanaimo most of us fish WCVI for halibut. So for this area we would have been fine for core months open. June to August. That would allowed for a bigger fish.

However I have in the past fished SVI for several years and halibut fishing there is different. The best times are Feb to June. I totally get the argument the SVI anglers are saying. Sometimes I will do a bunch of day runs down there in spring even though I am up here.

That being said I am not sure it's worth it for me anymore to come down there if I am restricted to such a small fish without purchasing quota. That is being 100 percent honest.

Looking at what's happening with halibut and commercials this year with China tarrifs I could care less if people buy quota.

This fantasy that somehow the XRQ quota is going to be stopped is nonsense. It will be extremely popular this year with anglers, guides and lodges.

These regulations are crappy for people that take longer than day trips on WCVI and North Island.

I even have thought about buying quota at this point. Not a fan of catch and release of halibut.

 

[Derby]

No one is happy... i would suggest for all of you that are not a member of your area that you fish perhaps join... u dont have to show up to any meeting if don't want too. HOWEVER to become a voting member of the sfac you need to 2 in person meeting . That being said you should be receiving all the sfab stuff that is sent out the the chairs of the sfac which they should be distributing to all there sfac members. With the halibut allocation being down and looking like this trend is continuing I believe the sfab will be sending out a halibut survey for the sfac members this fall . Where you will be able to give your input on perhaps how you want the 2026 season roll.. remember it would be a guide to the halibut working group to shape that season.

 

[Capt_Ed]

I feel for the the guides whos businesses will suffer because of the decisions but if this decision pisses fishers off enough to do more research or get more invloved in the fishery trust me you wont regret it. I spent the first 20 years of my commercial career just fishing, the last 15 years i got involved and felt like i gave back and made a difference. Its so worth it.

 

[searun]

Looking forward (aside from securing more TAC by whatever means available), in this new low abundance regime it makes sense to start by identifying clearly what direction the SFAB members want their halibut regulations to go - there are 3 basic options, so you could gather that by collecting votes by either of 2 methods; 1) put out a survey to all SFAC Members and find out what people have to say; or 2) Collect one motion/vote from each SFAC to identify what they support from following 3 basic choices:

1) Longest possible season - with small fish (adjust max size and possession limits to match available TAC)
2) Shorter core season - with larger fish. (cutting out early/late season until we gain reduction necessary to fit available TAC)
3) Truncated season - with larger fish. (cutting out segments of the season that have enough historic TAC to gain the reduction necessary to fit the available TAC)

 

[SG2.0]

No one is happy... i would suggest for all of you that are not a member of your area that you fish perhaps join... u dont have to show up to any meeting if don't want too. HOWEVER to become a voting member of the sfac you need to 2 in person meeting . That being said you should be receiving all the sfab stuff that is sent out the the chairs of the sfac which they should be distributing to all there sfac members. With the halibut allocation being down and looking like this trend is continuing I believe the sfab will be sending out a halibut survey for the sfac members this fall . Where you will be able to give your input on perhaps how you want the 2026 season roll.. remember it would be a guide to the halibut working group to shape that season.

We already did that survey and the sfab halibut working group didn’t listen…. Lolol

 

[wildmanyeah]

could ask people to rank the months they want open or closed. Lots to fish for in august besides halibut though i know for some areas salmon is slowing down.

IMO the way to go, though there is no current mechanism for it would be for the big lodges to buy quota. They are turning and burning multimillion dollar VPs, CEO's, clients though there operations daily.

I wasn't a fan of the halibut decision and for my area in Nanaimo most of us fish WCVI for halibut. So for this area we would have been fine for core months open. June to August. That would allowed for a bigger fish.

I'm pretty sure September is also an important month for WCVI, Murphy's and FWR used to advertise cover the cost of your charter in Halibut meat in September.

2) Shorter core season - with larger fish. (cutting out early/late season until we gain reduction necessary to fit available TAC)

There still needs to be mechanisms in place not to create a derby style mentality for this

 

[wildmanyeah]

We already did that survey and the sfab halibut working group didn’t listen…. Lolol

I don't think its that simple, its one thing when DFO closes one area to keep another open, but the SFAB doing that is different imo

this can be done with salmon too but my understanding the the SFAB has had a long understanding not to go down that path. They could for example keep area 12 closed to keep area 13 open earlier/longer.

salmon they generally target the areas with the largest exploitation rates for the at stock risk stock but it does not need to be done that way.

I remember the south coast sfab chair shutting down a conversation right away that strayed in this direction. "when dfo said if you want this area open then you have to close another"

 

[searun]

I don't think its that simple, its one thing when DFO closes one area to keep another open, but the SFAB doing that is different imo

this can be done with salmon too but my understanding the the SFAB has had a long understanding not to go down that path. They could for example keep area 12 closed to keep area 13 open earlier/longer.

salmon they generally target the areas with the largest exploitation rates for the at stock risk stock but it does not need to be done that way.

I remember the south coast sfab chair shutting down a conversation right away that strayed in this direction. "when dfo said if you want this area open then you have to close another"

I think I'm hearing we need a re-set. A lot of people who are regular participants in their local SFAC did not seem to know about the survey. We might need to step back and take another look at various ways to gather input. That's why I posed 2 different approaches - one to do another general survey out to all the local SFAC members or an alternative, which is just to have each local SFAC meet and debate what works best for them and each SFAC carries forward one selection or maybe even ranks them in terms of first, second and third preference. That way we have a broader sense of what people across the coast really value and want out of their halibut fishery - rather than guess or let those who play politics the loudest carry the day.

 

[Newf]

In the attached table it notes “Net Wt”. This may be a stupid question but when I look at a length to weight chart, Net Wt means dressed with head off,,,so are the numbers in the table and our TAC number dressed, head off weights????

 

[searun]

View attachment 115658
In the attached table it notes “Net Wt”. This may be a stupid question but when I look at a length to weight chart, Net Wt means dressed with head off,,,so are the numbers in the table and our TAC number dressed, head off weights????

Yes

 

[Hardy Guy]

Yes commercial always use dho weight.