Attended meeting in Newport last night. Very small turnout. Don Bodenmiller of ODFW actively was looking for feedback on his proposed changes per OceanBlue's meeting notice post.
I was ONLY private boat owner at meeting. Rest of dozen or so attendees were charter captains, their family, and charter office staff. Even though some of charter captains tried to control the meeting.... Don did a good job of inviting comments from ALL who attended.
To me some of the most interesting comments were:
1) They expected approx 40,000 of uncaught halibut to carry over to the 2004 quota.
2) Stonewall Banks (Rockpile) WILL BE outside the 40 fathom line... thus closed to bottom fishing except for halibut during open dates and salmon & tuna. Thus not open for lingcod or rock fish June thru Sept.
3) When halibut fishing, no other bottom fish may be retained (not even sable fish... sorry Keta).
4) Info on this chart was presented as part of discussion:
Note that the 75% vs 25% allocation between the spring vs summer seasons is based on past feedback. I personaly would like to see it changed in the future to say 50/50 for better weather. Based upon comments the 25% was allocated for private boat owners a chance to catch fish during better weather in the summer.
There was no explanation as to why catch per day has declined so much in recent years.
The proposed changed will voted upon during the Nov 3-7 PFMC meeting with quota assigned in January and ODFW issuing season dates in Feb'04.
I did pass on the comment about lack of meetings in the Valley. Suggest you send any feedback directly to Don at his email. He seemed VERY interested in private boat owner input. his address is:
Don.Bodenmiller@oregonstate.edu
He is only able to make changes to issues proposed per the original meeting notice... anything else would need to be proposed next year in Sept.
Let me know if you have any questions about the meeting.
[ 10-23-2003, 02:46 PM: Message edited by: blubeast ]
blubeast
Newport Halibut meeting comments
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