Halibut Poll # 2

[Captain Kidd]

On the front of my licence I'm restriced to 10 Lingcod annually in the Strait of Georgia, seems like that would work for hali too.

 

[the fog ducker]

mornin fellas

i personally picked 5 , cause i kept less than that , i would like ta think most anglers did the same..,
again , how many do we need , 10 would be my second choice for sure ,
just not sure if that would really help bring down our tac at the end of the year , just trying ta do my part by getting numbers down for the
best season for ALL USERS...i could live with 5 annually till we get to the picture.. or am i being greedy : )

guess what , another poll coming lol...this one will be about a stamp/tags , documenting all our catches on our licenses ( to be handed in annually ) wont help this year , but certainly years ta come , as Fish Hunters Excellent post suggests..

stamp proceeds used ta help us move forward,,, dont ask me how , let the big boys figure that out , if at all possible..

fd

 

[scott craven]

I don't think 10 fish over a 10 month season is being greedy....
Just look how many fish are taken by commercial fishermen over the same time period
and then consider ?

 

[trophywife]

i chose 8.this is not being greedy. my family needs come first, we need this amount as a minimum,, size range this year was 15lbs up to 70 and we just have enough to last until spring.

 

[scott craven]

Actually the more I think about it, the more i wonder why we are agreeing to restrict ourselves
with slot sizes, annual limits and shorter seasons. We struggle with 15% while
Commercial's get 85% of the TAC and they are still not happy.
I'll bet they don't worry too much about killing large fish either.

 

[the fog ducker]

lol i here ya Craven

dont get the 2 mixed up buds , the "real issue" vrs this up-coming season , i dont want restrictions either , trust me , reality is ,
there is GONNA BE , might as well try ta figure somthing temp out until then,,

fd

 

[UkeeDreamin]

I don't think harvesting 10 is greedy, either. However, I don't believe this has anything to do with an amount that folks think is greedy, or meets the needs of a family of four for a year or any metric like that. The purpose of an annual limit, as I understand it, is to limit the rec sector's harvest such that the sector can remain within their TAC for a full season and still give reasonable access and harvest potential to all Canadian recreational fisherman, as well as to foreign tourist anglers. That means accommodating the needs of the local, residents who haul their own boat on a trip or two and tourists using a charter or lodge. If we had good data, we'd be able to run some calculations based on what % of rec anglers who annually target halibut fall into each category and extrapolate some numbers. My guess is the numbers of those who have the ability to harverst more than 4-6 halibut, i.e. local resident anglers near halibut fishing areas, represents a small portion of the rec community. However I don't think anyone knows what % of the TAC that group harvests each year compared to the travelling resident or tourist using charter/lodge operations.

If anything comes of this I hope that the SFI, SFAB and SFAC groups realize that, in order to properly represent the rec sector, they need to be the ones who have this data about the sector they represent. It significantly weakens any stance our sector takes when we don't even know the composition or capacity of our group. You can be assured that the commercial sector has this data for their group and the numbers are accurate and defensible.

Having said all that, my guesstimate would be that 10 per year is far above what the majority of rec anglers have access to (due to possession limit and fact majority of do-it-your-selfers and tourists would only make 1-3 hali trips per year) and that a 10/year limit wouldn't reduce the harvest of the local angler enough to make much of a difference.

I hope folks also realize that this issue is yet another one that potentially pits angler vs angler - in this case the needs or wants of the local angler vs the travelling angler as, understandably, their needs and/or expectations are quite different. In seeking rec solutions that work for the entire group, given how large and diverse it is, such conflicts are inevitable. Just read a few of the threads on such subjects and see how often there is griping between the guide/outfitters and other rec anglers. This diversity needs to be accommodated but also realize we can't make everyone happy with every decision.

More than my two-cents for now.

 

[wstcoaster]

a halibut stamp or paying for tags would establish no of halibut fishers and so help with data collection not all anglers are wanting to fish for halis much more sporting to fish salmon; mose are caught by meat hunters

 

[GDW]

I love Hali fishing. IMO it's more peacefull then trolling in the fleet for springs. set the pick, set the lines, then relax.

At some point let's have a poll - should the offshore banks AKA chicken ranches remain open for Hali? Or close them and let the ping pong paddles grow up a little instead of slaying them in their nursery.

 

[wstcoaster]

i think this has been studied extensively in alaska its better to catch one 100 pounder than 10 small ones who have many years of spawning ahead of them so better for more recruitment in future

 

[UkeeDreamin]

Actually, the current issue with Halibut biomass is an over-abundance of undersized halibut that aren't recruiting to spawning size. The biomass of "undersized" halibut and arrowtooth flounder in the north Pacific is at unprecedented high levels and halibut bio's are hypothesizing that over-competition for food is being reflected in extremely slow growth rates and extremely low recruitment from this huge biomass of undersized butts to spawning size. So, if anything, focussing harvest on the large biomass of undersized, while not targeting the low biomass of spawning size butts, could be one approach. Most Fisheries Managers typically don't advocate for such an approach because there is no way of knowing if there may be a sub-set of the under-sized fish that account for the majority of recruitment to spawner size, which could be negatively impacted if effort was focussed on that size class.

All this info is readily available on the IPHC's website.

 

[ziggy]

I chose 5 because that's all we need as a small family and even though I have the only license,that number works for us.I can see where a larger family would want more, however, I can also see where would be able to get more because more members of the family could hold licenses, so not sure why each member would need more than 5?

I've found the greatest conservation tools are the tides, the winds and work. To be honest it almost seems like one of the three always gets in the way of fishing halibut. Oh and when the stars finally align and you get the perfect day, the dogfish show up.

 

[the fog ducker]

I chose 5 because that's all we need as a small family and even though I have the only license,that number works for us.I can see where a larger family would want more, however, I can also see where would be able to get more because more members of the family could hold licenses, so not sure why each member would need more than 5?.

lol, Great point,,

fd

 

[GDW]

Increased competition for a decreased food supply that does make sense why growth rates would slow. Anyone know how big a Bali has to be before it can spawn? Or how many years old

 

[GLG]

Here is why 5 doesn't work IMHO
2 over night trips to the west coast and with luck you get 4 fish.. 1 and 2 rules
We would then only be allowed 1 fish on our next overnight trip.
Would the numbers be better at 4 or 6 ???
Can I change my vote...

 

[the fog ducker]

i wanna fish in ur boat GLG :

if you can go out 3 times , and get 6 fish guaranteed ,,,
i'll pay for the fuel and bait ; )

k lets make it 6 then , just in case...


fd

 

[GLG]

J

Since I don't know what the First Nations were allocated by DFO, I can't lay out their numbers.

Here is the number you should use... Not sure if they added any...

British Columbia (Area 2B)
The main personal use harvest in British Columbia is the catch by the First
Nations FSC fi shery. It is administered by a Communal License issued by DFO,
and has priority over all other fi sheries in Canada. Overall, an estimated 405,000
pounds of halibut were caught in 2009, an estimate that has remained constant
since 2007.

http://www.iphc.int/publications/annual/ar2010.pdf

You also need to have numbers for the under/over that was transferred.
Don't have those myself... but I do know we were over last year and it brought this years number down.
Just like it's going to do for 2013..... sad I know....
GLG

 

[GLG]

i wanna fish in ur boat GLG :

if you can go out 3 times , and get 6 fish guaranteed ,,,
i'll pay for the fuel and bait ; )

k lets make it 6 then , just in case...


fd

If you saw what I caught this year you would laugh at my skills for halibut.
I'm a little better with springs...

so in the end take 5 out of the options as most would agree that makes no sense.
Unless others have a problem with that.....
GLG

 

[Hali killer]

Increased competition for a decreased food supply that does make sense why growth rates would slow. Anyone know how big a Bali has to be before it can spawn? Or how many years old

12 years for females 8 years for males.

 

[Bod]

if you can go out 3 times , and get 6 fish guaranteed ,,,
i'll pay for the fuel and bait ; )




fd[/QUOTE]

You've got to be ****'in kiddding, right?