Halibut Regulations - Please read

[OceanBlue]

Hello all my salty friends - I was asked to post this. Please try and attend!

MEETING NOTICE
2003 SPORT HALIBUT FISHERY
January 15, 2003

The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) will set the 2003 allowable catch for Area 2A next week at their annual meeting. The IPHC staff is recommending the same allowable catch as in 2002. Once the allowable catch has been set, the open season dates for Oregon’s all-depth recreational fishery between Cape Falcon and Humbug Mountain can be finalized.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold a public meeting to hear comments regarding:

· The number and dates of fixed open days during the May all-depth season for the area from Cape Falcon to Florence north jetty.

· The number and dates of fixed open days during the May all-depth season for the area from Florence north jetty to Humbug Mountain.

· The number and dates of fixed open days for the August all-depth season from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mountain.

· Back-up dates for each of the above fisheries in case quota remains after the fixed dates.

The meeting will be held:

Wednesday, January 29, 2003
7:00 p.m.
Fireside Room (Room 9)
Hatfield Marine Science Center
Newport

If you have any questions, or want to provide comments without attending the meeting, please contact Don Bodenmiller directly at (541) 867-0300 extension 223 (FAX number is 867-0311), or through email at Don.Bodenmiller@oregonstate.edu

[id. painter]

O.K.. I cant stay silent any longer. What was last years season dates and limit???Oh yah, and when is the salmon season for Depoe Bay area. id. p.

[Miss B Haven]

id - Salmon season won't be set until April (or is it end of March). They opened an early Chinook season last year for the Spring.

You can go to the ODFW web page and hunt around and find last years seasons on everything. Here's the link. THis is not straighforward. Salmon/Halibut will not be in the main regs. You gotta hunt in the special seasons/regs.

http://www.dfw.state.or.us/

[id. painter]

Thanks for the link Miss B. ill look around in there. id. p.

[Chum King]

FYI - The ocean salmon seasons for the period from March 15 through the end of April have already been established for 2003 (under the 2002 regulation process). The sport season will be open from Cape Falcon to Humbug Mtn. for all species except coho for that period. The regulations can be found by going to the following page Ocean Salmon Index Page and clicking on the sport salmon regulations link.

There will be a "Salmon Industry Group" meeting to discuss the 2003 seasons sponsored by ODFW at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport on March 5. The meeting will be in room 9 aka the fireside room, and will start at 9:30 AM. At this meeting, ODFW staff will review last year's seasons, provide forecasts for the abundance of various stocks of salmon for the coming year, and allow the fishing community their first (and in my opinion best) opportunity to help develop salmon season options for the coming year.

This is an open public meeting, and I would encourage any of you who have an interest in helping develop the ocean salmon seasons to attend. This meeting will primarily focus on developing options for the seasons to the south of Cape Falcon.

The regulations for all seasons from May 1 on will be finalized during the April 7-11 Pacific Fishery Management Council meeting. Note: The regulations adopted by PFMC are still not final until approved by the National Marine Fisheries Service and the Secretary of the Dept. of Commerce.

[ 01-16-2003, 09:13 AM: Message edited by: Chum King ]

[OceanBlue]

Hi Chum King,

Wondered if you could comment on the Halibut meetings. I saw on the IPHC web site that there is a proposal to move quota from central to north if central hasn't met quota and north has. Is this to be discussed also?

I found that info earlier this week, but now I cannot find it. Was that old info?

[ 01-16-2003, 09:36 AM: Message edited by: Pilar's Mate ]

[Chum King]

PM:
I have not seen an agenda as of yet, but I am sure this will be one of the items that will be discussed. This one issue has definitely been of interest to a lot of people.

[tailchaser]

For some reason, I can't seem to fathom why ODFW can't make a regulated halibut season that uses a fish tagging system similar to everything else. Therefore we could pick days that were better suited for traveling long ranges instead of having no choice. I would be plenty happy in shaving my halibut tag to 4 instead of 6 to be able to go on any day I please. I'm sure it could be accomplished if they wanted to. The poundage issue is too much of a hassle. I don't see a lot of gains by using it. I know this has been discussed, so why doesn't it take place??

tc

[seasquid]

Tailchaser,

I'm with you....seems like that would be the prudent thing to do.

ss

[Pilar]

Anyone in an official capacity, disagree with me if I get this wrong. Tailchaser, the word around the campfire is that this is an enforcement issue. In order to have this fishery it must be closely monitored and an accurate count of poundage made. The number of field techs, counting and measuring fish required to cover all ports is a burden.

The state police are there in force also on the derby days.

So instead of having the big effort on checking fish over a long period of time the method is to restrict the fishery to a few days a year.

There is also some resistance from the commercial charter fleet to opening it up to more days. Many of the days made available now are in May, a rough month for small craft. I'm sure this motivates many to ride a charter and pay the going rate.

This issue is getting some back door lobbying from many of the same folks who were involved in the rockfish issue last fall. Only some of what goes on at these commision meetings happens 'on the record'. Much work and exploration is done while on break in an unofficial and informal setting. Sometimes all you have to do is ask the right question to get something moving.

The derby fishery is a safety problem for small craft boaters. The ODFW officials are aware of this point of view, it has been explained to them at length.

What is needed now are some suggestions from all of you on how to open up more days and allow the fishers to choose Halibut days based on weather, not a derby mentality where safe boating takes a back seat to the only day open. The suggestions should consider the logistics of counting fish and not spending lots of money on fishcheckers at every port for many days.

I thought of the way permit goose hunts work. You have to check in at a station and show them your birds. Maybe there could be a place on the coast to check in your fish.

[Popeye]

Pilar....I 100% agree with you! I've often wondered why Halibut has become such a "Derby Style" fishing season. At risk of endangering lives, it seems that the Halibut Commission has opted to use the "If they can't get out, less fish will be caught" attitude! I'm really sorry, "I" have a boat to get out when I really feel like getting beat up, but I'm sick and tired of seeing my friends sink their boats and risk their lives over something so passionate to them just because they're so limited to "open days".
Nuff said

[RJ]

I also agree 100% on what your sayin,Wak and I were just discussin this the other day,as I see it there can be methods for tracking harvest that could be more accurate than the current system and allow sport fishers the freedom to pick there days.

1. mandatory harvest cards that can be either mailed in or filed online much like the state of Idaho does for there big game.

2.mandatory check stations at boat ramps such as Southbeach would be chaios and tie up the ramp and do nothing but make for an even uglier scenerio.I personally feel the harvest report card would work, especially with the added incentive that if you don't mail or file by such a date you will not recieve a liscence the following year.

[corrirod]

I agree as well.

There is really only one thing that would worry me though and that's the fact that most of the derby days a Coast Guard boat makes the trek out to the hali holes, therefore making a rescue possible in very short time. By limiting the days you also keep the pack together, which as we Tunaholics know, makes for a safer run. As we all know, things go wrong, even on good days, and I'd hate to have someone go down all alone out there.

For the experienced people, like the ones on this board, that won't ever be an issue. I just worry about the other 90% of boaters out there. Can they be trusted not to kill themselves?

Tough issue, I can see both sides. I'm sure there are some smart people out there with great ideas and I hope they show up to the meeting and speak up.

[Chum King]

Let me see if I can clear up a few items on this discussion:
1. Most marine fish species including Pacific halibut are managed on a biomass basis and thus the reason for the catch quota being expressed in pounds not numbers of fish. That isn't going to change. Salmon is the exception to this rule, since they come back to the rivers to spawn assessments can be made in numbers of fish. Also keep in mind that the overall catch quotas are established by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC), and the PFMC and ODFW only deal with splitting up the area 2A quota between recreational and commercial and establish the seasons.

2. The "controlled hunt" tag concept to recreational halibut fishing has been knocked around for more than a few years now. There are definitely a lot of issues in getting something like this put into place. All the way from the logistics of getting a sytem in place on the *** machines, to how many fish could be on a tag (doubtful that it could be more than 1 or 2 and still keep a similar number of anglers in the fishery, sorry TC, but I don't think that "4" is in the cards).

3. Pilar, catch estimations and enforcement are not the reasons for the short number of allowable fishing days. The limited number of days has to do with the catch rate and high effort on the open deepwater fishing days. If it were open more days each week then the quota could be exceeded before ODFW could close the fishery. Whether the halibut fishery is a few days or a month long, the fish checkers will still be there to monitor salmon and other marine fish species being caught. Keep in mind that by spreading the open days out over several different weeks, there is a better chance of having some decent ocean conditions on some of the days.

4. The reason that the fishery is open in May is because the majority of the people weighing in on the issue at the halibut meetings have wanted it that way. I've been at the meetings, listened to the discussions, and watched the hands go up when it came to decision time.
Do I like having the deepwater days in May? No.
Have I come up with an answer to the problem? No.

5. The points that Corrirod mentions about safety in numbers and the fact that the USCG is usually out there on those day are also often referenced as a problem in going to a "controlled hunt" type of approach. Of course if you fish in July and August, you have a better chance of catching halibut on the Rockpile than you do in May.

[Pilar]

Eric, thanks for setting me straight. I have heard the concerns about enforcement voiced but maybe the concern was over enforcing quota and I misunderstood.

Anyway can you see the safety issue and our concern over that?

[Chum King]

John,

I believe almost everyone involved in this process is aware of the safety issues involved in this derby type of fishery, and that includes myself. I have been out at "the ranch" on some not so nice days in May, and wondered why. I saw a boat go down on one of those days that appeared to be a result of not enough boat for the sloppy ocean that day.

On the other hand a friend of mine lost their boat on a deepwater halibut day when it was a "flat" ocean (probably a through hull fitting failure, but no one ever found out for sure since the boat wasn't recovered). This wasn't a problem of the derby fishery, but in their case they benefitted from the fact that there were a couple hundred boats out there, and were able to step right off of their boat onto the OSP boat.

I have often thought that if we could have a referee that would "blow the whistle" to start the fishery on each day, you could at least get the fishery away from those really nasty days. But who is going to be the one to make the call? What would be the criteria for calling the fishing day off? The guys with the biggest boats and especially most of the charters wouldn't like this approach.

Like I said before, I don't have the answers.
Prior experience tells me that even if I did have the answer, there would be a vocal minority in disagreement. :tongue:

[ 01-17-2003, 05:36 AM: Message edited by: Chum King ]

[OceanBlue]

K folks. You've expressed concerns & ideas. Like always, this board is a great venue for kicking around ideas, complaints, concerns, possible solutions. BUT - when all is said and done, what really matters is bodies showing up to meetings and bringing these issues out there.

One thing I would caution you all about - We are responsible for our own personal safety. Leaving the dock in pursuit of a FISH when the conditions are questionable is just plain WRONG. The commission is not likely to hear that the system should change to save people from themselves. This was brought up at one of the commission meetings and Chair Esler, justifiably, scoffed at it (with that impish twinkle in his eyes, but scoffed nonetheless)

So, folks... if you want a change, my recommendation would be to come up with a more compelling reason for the change.

My $.02

[tailchaser]

What am I missing on this enforcement thing? I'm speaking for Charleston here, since it's been a while since I've been out of Newport or any northern ports. All that happens here for enforcement is the fish checker looks into your cooler and documents the catch and occassionally measures a couple. He's there at the docks waiting for the boats to come in. There's one in each boat basin and it's always the same. If there's a problem, OSP is called from there. What's the difference if he has to punch a couple more keypads to add a halibut to the list for the day??? Occassionally OSP makes some suprise visits but they're never out on the water 30 miles from shore, they stop you when you hit the docks. So I'm missing the added security for this issue. It wouldn't be any different than tagging a salmon. I'm sure they can figure out pretty quickly how many fish are caught to meet the quota using average fish size, then average the amount of anglers per year that chase them, and figure out a number of fish allowed per angler. I only make about two to three trips a year so I wouldn't cry about limiting my bag on this. Obviously it's not exact, but is there an exact one?? NO there isn't but this would allow flexibility to the angler.

just my .02

tc

[ 01-17-2003, 11:49 AM: Message edited by: tailchaser ]