Halibut Season’s will be Severely Cut This Year 12

Thanks Truant for taking some time out of your day and attending the meeting. It's nice to have the small victory like we announced on the show yesterday but we have to keep staying vigilant. Hopefully we can get something done about this halibut deal. By catch is killing us.

I was at the meeting. A few players with agendas. What a poker game. Good job Mr. Tobeck for calling them on the rockfish scam. I know halibut as bycatch is one of your pet peeves. Mine too. I worked on a commercial dragger in the '80's and on a good tow we would put 40% of the catch in the hold and 60% of it dead out the trash chute. A full net was about 40 thousand pounds and this was on a small dragger. The regulations that are supposed to protect the resource often don't make any sense until you consider the politics involved. Thanks for being on the rockfish committee.

Yeah, thanks for going on behalf of those of who couldn't, or won't, including myself. How did it go? Just curious. I need to get my butt in gear and get on top of dates and times of these meetings so I can plan on attending a few of them rather than leaving all the attendance and effort to the usual's.

Thanks for attending the meetings Tobeck and voicing our concerns...we all owe you one!

Pipe Dream, I will float that one today.

How many folks actually fish for halibut in the areas they closed? Not many! And given the shortened season the exposure to rockfish would be very low. So why the restriction on transport? Possibilities: 1. Cut WDFW costs having to provide checkers and fish cops over a bigger geographical area. 2. Make it so difficult to participate that many who otherwise would simply give up (my personal choice) If it is really not No. 2, above, then I suggest that WDFW have a checker available at one or more locations within the open areas (or nearest convenient stop in a closed area) where a successful fisher can check in a fish and obtain a transport tag. This reduces costs while enabling a better count as well as transport through closed areas. If WDFW won't come up with a solution then it will be clear that this is no more than an effort to restrict participation. Wonder if this passes the legality test re: travel? Next will be you can't transport a legally harvested elk through a closed area........

Richard and Jim, thanks for the comments. I will make sure that the department hears them.

Total BS. Like Tom mentioned, not allowing access is a total cop-out. Commercial bycatch is way out of line. I don't have current figures but when I used to attend the halibut commision meetings the halibut bycatch was greater than the catch quota.

I have fished area 9 for halibut since the mid-80's. Last year was one of the best ever. Some years are good, some not so hot, some excellent like last year. But, or should I say BUTT, I have never once, not ever, not caught one single rock fish of any kind while fishing for halibut in area 9 here in Washington. Oh, it's happened up in Alaska. It's happened at Neah Bay. But in this neck of the woods??? NO, not once, never, and I've never seen one caught. I've caught lings while attempting to get halibut, but not ROCKFISH. They usually don't bite your typical halibut gear often used here, and if they do, they usually aren't getting hooked. This is a complete joke and lacks any serious attempt at actually doing something to benefit rockfish stocks. As stated above, I've fished area 9 for years, not like a couple days a year for halibut, but more like 2 or 3 days minimum a week (wed to sun) that it is open. Any state fish biologist who subscribes to this plan should not have BIOLOGIST attached to his name. Limiting halibut fishing days and closing some areas will have not one negligible effect on benefiting rockfish. It will however keep anglers from buying licenses and gear in this already down economy. Which is a shame since the fish they'd be after are making a strong comeback locally from previous years and catches will not have any significant impact on the future populations of this fish if you compare it to the commercial catches up and down the west coast. We anglers love to pursue the possibility of reeling in a monster halibut from the depths of local waters. We love to catch and eat those 12 to 40 pounders too. If the WDFW thinks that reducing our already limited times and places to fish for halibut in most, if not all of Washington's waters will have any effect on rockfish populations then they should just quit selling fishing licenses altogether. As it is apparent they really aren't interested in managing our fishing resources for the anglers who are tax paying citizens of this state. They are simply interested in taking the easiest route available to make it LOOK like they care about fish stocks while watching those stocks dwindle as they sit by in their offices with no solid solutions.

The recreational harvest doesn't even match the by-catch from commercial fisheries. Maybe they should fix that problem instead of continuing to take from us.

Other than last year (economy) commercial harvest of halibut increased dramatically coastwide over the last decade. In area 3 (Gulf of Alaska), for instance, commercial pressure tripled over the last decade and area 2A harvest increased substantially. I don't need to quote anything...it's all right there in their OWN DOCUMENT!

We have talked about this before but the fact remains: Using a rockfish management tool to restrict our access to other species is a cop-out. I would prefer a stand up fight to all of this underhanded sneaking around.