IPHC Halibut recomendations for 2009

[chris73]

Also, it can't be too good for a fish population if you take a great number of small ones and leave a few large ones in. Remember, the small ones of today are the big ones of tomorrow. You always need a healthy mix, thus taking 20 small ones isn't better than 2 large ones. Don't forget we talk about poundage and therefore in quota 20 x 10 lbs is the same as 2 x 100 lbs.

 

[searun]

Wolf, I sent you the presentation via e-mail. In answer the the small vs big, I would suggest that when we are dealing with Halibut who are 20+ years old as large spawners, it only makes sense that we do what ever possible to protect them rather than target them as they are rare fish. The small ones are more common and plentiful as compared to the large brutes that everyone wants to hold up for pictures. Again, we have to look in the mirror and be more selective when it comes to fish we catch. Let's remove the plank in our eye before we remove the sliver from the eye of the commercial fishery...not a popular view (can't wait for the response) but...the truth hurts, sport fishermen if we target the large spawners can have a detrimental impact on the future of halibut fishing. Don't get me wrong, I think the commercial sector has been allocated way, way too many fish...but my point is we sporties need to be careful about the fish we target, and we have a choice......go fish the banks for little one's or fish inshore pinnacles for the fatties. I think we as sportsfishers are better than that.

 

[chris73]

As I said, searun, I don't generally agree with your big vs. small logic. If you talk numbers yes, makes sense: if someone rather takes 2 chickens over 2 barndoors = good for the stocks. However, in quota talk, encouraging the sporties to take their TAC only in small halis would mean a significant higher numbers of individual fish taken than the TAC quota in big fish. And I am not convinced that latter is worse.

 

[richmake]

I'll jump in on this one and add to the fire...
12% tac is all we get...
I think we can all agree that less than half of us this year kept a halibut over 100lbs...argue that if you like but I'm telling you I saw alot of fish this year and I may have released some big ones but with that being said...monsters on the dock were rare!
Commercial guy's have 88% tac and are paid differently upon size...
They get more money for the 60lb to 110 lb fish simply based on recovery...
Bottom line here is that the commercial boy's get almost 90% of the TAC and they aren't ever gonna release a breeder..
I think the rare chance for someone to have a choice to keep a giant should still be there...
I will continue to ask my clients to release the big girls but if they want to keep her...in goes the harpoon....bottom line!
I would probably feel differently if this whole ******** halibut crisis was all about conservation and not about the 400 or so boy's in Hawaii sipping margarita's....

www.coastwidesportsfishing.com

 

[searun]

I stand by my comments....its about avoiding targeting large spawning stocks in the interest of the long term conservation of the stock for future years. The TAC is calculated on an average fish size based on predictions of both numbers of landed fish and size. Our beef all along is the TAC calculation is incorrect in that the average size of sport caught halis are much smaller than the commission is using for their formula. The strength of our position is we generally target smaller fish...but that fails if we all switch and start going after the large ones.....which is easy if you want to anchor up and fish the pinnacles. By switching over to targeting big halis we are playing into the hand of those who are negotiating against us.....and we are not doing our part for conservation of stocks for future years.

Not a popular view but wouldn't we all prefer to be able to hold our collective heads high by avoiding the large fish, and sticking with the smaller ones until</u> the abundance rebounds - which it will if we let it?

And I completely agree, if we have a client who has a large one on the line we should try to convince them of the merits of letting it go - not to mention the poorer quality of the meat - and encourage them to take home fish under 60 pounds. And yes, in the end if the client wants the big one there isn't much we can do about that....other than try to stay away from the areas where the big flatties hang.

So all I'm saying is it would be best if we could try to keep people away from the big one's, even if that means spending a little more for gas to go onto the bank looking for smaller fish.

 

[wolf]

Searun what you are saying is good in but reality is you will not get guys to not target big halibut. As alot of people have "the bigger the better" attitude halibut IS a trophy fish and some want to get the biggest trophy fish that why its called sport fishing.
Me personally I have gotten the bigger ones way over a 100 lbs. Now I dont really want to but if it happens then I am in a dilema as I really dont want to kill it but I have paying customers on the boat, and I have told my clients so I try and target the smaller ones.

Also sorry to say the reallity is the commercial boys go out there for one reason and one reason only to FILL the boat so if they catch 100 halibut over 100 lbs it will fill up the boat alot quicker than getting 30 lbers all they want to do is go out and be back as quick as possable would you like to work 3 days in a row or 10 days in a row?????????.

The amount of "big" haibut as sport fisherman take in reality is peanuts compared to the big boys, Ill use constace bank for instance you got 30 boats out there fishing with most fishing 3 rods (avg) and since it is so tide/current/weather based we get to fish for about 6 to 8 hours so theres 90 hooks/bait over a huge span correct???and maybe 20 boats will acually catch a fish.

Now look at commercial 200 to 300 hooks on a skate (longline) and usually a halibut boat will fish min 4 skates some up to 10 so really 1200 hooks to 3000 hooks down for a 12 to 36 hour time frame.see the difference???
And the gear is down longer catching and catching this is not about conservation at all it all political and we are going to get it in the end we are facing a "David vs Golith"
and we will not win and thats the facts!!!!!!!!!


Wolf

Blue Wolf Charters
www.bluewolfcharters.com

 

[Tailspin]

Easy Wolf, so negative[8D]

Just think. we can still go out for a boat ride once and a whle. Maybe pick up some garbage in front of the **** pipe at clover point, take a run towards the Race and watch the Commercial longliner pull dead hali over the side for a few hours. Have some lunch and troll for a pink on the way home, just in case! That said, We should be awarded the entitlement to target big hali in Victoria. They are feeding so well and bulking up nicely on the millions of gallons of raw sewage dumped daily.[]Our Capital consevation at it's finest[:0]

www.tailspincharters.com

 

[scott craven]

Remember Justin, pink's only on the odd year !!
on the even year's, you could maybe jig a cod... oh wait a minute
they are closed

 

[Barbender]

About 7 or 8 years ago I was working for a wild packer out of Alaska. We had 3 giant halibut come in that were in excess of 400 lbs each. We could not find anyone to sell them too because they were too big. Customers could not work with them. Broke my heart to think that these huge fish were sold for basically cat food. Anyway based on volumes coming out of the commercial sector the recruitment of 80+ halis keeps dropping. The fish are getting smaller and smaller every year. Sound familiar?

 

[Bogman]

While there is alot of large halibut come out of the commercial fishery the average is well below 30#s

"Who would have ever thought it would be this much fun catching them one at a time"

 

[philharriss]

The only way to resolve the fish shortage is to personally inform D.F.O. that you will take only 5 halibut and 10 springs each year.
When they get enough people doing this then it will work.
I can't speak for everyone but I can let them know tommorrow of my plan to do so.

 

[wolf]

Phil that was already mentioned at the SFAB meeting in very great lenthgs with Chris and DFO. what we have to wait for is what the IHC decides it really doesnt matter what we say, once the ruling has been handed down and we loose our halibut season or ???.

A protest fishery may be in order and we need everyone out there to go halibut fishing and get the media involved locally and nationally because letters and words dont mean jack BUT actions seem to this day and age to get results!!!!!!!


Wolf

Blue Wolf Charters
www.bluewolfcharters.com

 

[Cuba Libre]

Wolf-- you just fed the troll. Remember YHBT???? [V]




20ft Alumaweld Intruder

 

[Cuba Libre]

From the Campbell River "Mirror"

quote:Campbell River Mirror
Halibut allocation has to be re-worked

By Jeremy Maynard - Campbell River Mirror

Published: December 11, 2008 5:00 PM

0 Comments After several weeks describing my experience of adult salmon stock assessment on a local small stream, ongoing events suggest that I revisit the halibut allocation issue.

Readers may recall that the recreational halibut season was closed at the end of October. This was two months early and in violation of an explicit commitment that there would be no in-season closures made in 2003 by the fisheries minister, Robert Thibault, when announcing the 12/88 per cent, recreational/commercial sharing arrangement.

Even though adequate funds were available (I could devote an entire column describing where they came from, just one more Alice-in-Wonderland aspect of this entire issue), DFO proved incapable of leasing enough additional halibut quota from commercial quota holders to keep the recreational fishery going. Thus the market-based mechanism required by government to facilitate movement of quota when needed from the commercial to the recreational sector failed on its very first test.

And it wasn’t a shortage of fish that caused this failure, because the commercial sector has left about three-quarters of a million pounds of halibut uncaught in the water at the close of its own season. This fact highlights once again that this vexed issue isn’t about conservation, it’s about politics, politics which unnecessarily restrict the publics access of the fisheries resource.

The crux of this issue is the contention of commercial quota holders that in effect they own a large share of the resource, with the recreational fishery (i.e. the Canadian public) harvest reducing their share. With DFO having curtailed the recreational halibut season this fall in violation of its own management regime in order to sustain this perspective, coincidentally from the Supreme Court of Canada (SCC) comes a judgment in a case (Saulnier vs. Royal Bank) which casts considerable doubt on this action.

The broad scope of the case does not concern us here but Justice Binnie writing for the SCC said that “the fishery is a public resource” and “the fish, once caught, become the property of the (license) holder.” Both points are important but the distinction in the latter regarding when fish actually become the property of the license and quota holder is particularly germane to the issue at hand.

If the only proprietary interest in the fish comes after they have been caught, what is it that recreational anglers are being asked to pay for in a “market-based” allocation mechanism? Government needs to answer this question quickly by re-working the halibut allocation policy in a way that works best for the Canadian public, for if not a legal challenge from recreational fishing organizations would seem inevitable.

As a last thought given the current astonishing federal political developments, it’s worth contemplating what would happen if an NDP MP became the new Minister of Fisheries in a coalition government, however unlikely a prospect that may now be. My guess is that he or she would be less inclined to support the interests of several hundred private halibut quota holders at the expense of the Canadian public and be willing to rewrite the policy.

20ft Alumaweld Intruder