Alaska Halibut Charter Meetings

Upcoming Alaska Halibut Charter Meetings concerning the Halibut Quotas

Whittier Alaska Halibut Charters are going to be effected. Please come and show your support.

Here is your chance to tell them how you feel. Although biomass and the commercial catch will probably be up, the guided sector will likely take another cut this year. I urge you to state your opinion. Many commercial people will undoubtedly be there stating their case about why the charter sector should be cut/or not increase. Typically we have only one or two charter anglers who show up.

National Marine Fisheries Service
Alaska Regional Office
Recreational Halibut Fishery Newsletter

North Pacific Fishery Management Council Meeting in Anchorage, December 6-14
The Council will be meeting at the Anchorage Hilton from December 6-14, 2016. This is a big meeting for the recreational halibut fishery. If you can’t attend in person, you may listen to the meeting online. Topics on the agenda that may be of interest to recreational anglers include:
Recreational Roundtable Event with Eileen Sobeck, the head of the National Marine Fisheries Service, and her policy advisor for recreational fisheries!
Final recommendation of charter annual management measures for Areas 2C and 3A for 2017
Final action on a proposal to allow the formation of a Recreational Quota Entity to purchase halibut quota share to augment the charter halibut catch limit
preliminary halibut harvest estimates for 2016
preliminary halibut stock assessment for 2016
2016 GAF Program annual report
Discussion paper examining charter halibut permit usage and leasing
Check the Council’s webpage for a detailed schedule and agenda for the meeting.

There will be a Recreational Roundtable Event on December 7, 2016, from 6-8 p.m. at the Historic Anchorage Hotel. NMFS Assistant Administrator, Eileen Sobeck, and Russell Dunn, the National Policy Coordinator for Recreational Fisheries, will be there to talk about national priorities related to recreational fishing. They want to hear from you, the recreational fishing community, about current and emerging issues in Alaska, so please plan to attend this informal and informational event and make your voices heard! Council members and staff, NMFS and ADFG staff, and members of the recreational fishing community are encouraged to attend. All are welcome. Food for this event is being generously provided by the Alaska Charter Association.

The Charter Management Implementation Committee will meet Dec. 6, 2016, from 9 a.m.-noon to review the analysis of proposed management measures and make selections to recommend to the Council for 2017. Submit comments to npfmc.comments@noaa.gov. Council staff contact is Steve MacLean. Further details are available on the Council webpage.

The Recreational Quota Entity Committee will meet Dec. 6, 2016, from 1-5 p.m. The RQE Analysis is posted on the Council’s agenda for the meeting. Please submit comments on the RQE analysis to npfmc.comments@noaa.gov or testify in person during the meeting. The Council is scheduled to take final action on this agenda item on Friday, December 9 (schedule subject to change). Council staff contact is Steve MacLean.

Council website
IPHC Interim Meeting
November 29-30, 2016
The IPHC Interim meeting begins November 29 and is open to the public to attend in person or via webinar (pre-registration is required for the webinar). Of particular interest to recreational anglers will be the review of the 2016 fisheries, the 2016 stock assessment, and the 2017 harvest decision table which shows the range of potential catch limits for 2017. These catch limits will be the basis for the decisions on which charter management measures to recommend to the IPHC for 2017 at their annual meeting in January 2017. Meeting information is available on the IPHC website.
Link to IPHC’s Interim Meeting website 2017 Annual Management Measures for the Charter Halibut Fishery

On October 24, the Charter Management Implementation Committee met to discuss preliminary estimates of harvests by the charter sector under the 2016 management measures in Areas 2C and 3A, and to propose new measures for consideration in 2017. The meeting summary, including the proposed management measures and preliminary harvest estimates, are available at the link below. The committee will reconvene on December 6, 2016, from 9 am to noon, to select their preferred measures for recommendation to the Council and the International Pacific Halibut Commission. The IPHC considers the recommendations of the Council when implementing their annual management measures.

Link to Meeting Documents
Final 2016 Report on the Guided Angler Fish Program
The Guided Angler Fish or “GAF” Program was started in 2014 to allow charter halibut permit holders to lease commercial halibut individual fishing quota (IFQ) for use in the charter fishery. Using GAF, charter anglers may harvest halibut up to the limits in place for unguided anglers. NMFS has completed a report of GAF usage for 2016, including comparisons with 2014 and 2015. More than 57,000 lb of IFQ were transferred to the charter sector in 2016 (a 10,000 lb increase from 2015). The complete report will be available soon on the Council’s webpage.

Julie Scheurer | Recreational Fishing Coordinator, NOAA Fisheries,
Alaska Regional Office | (907) 586-7111 | Julie.Scheurer@noaa.gov

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