Some additional information on the sablefish incidental take allowance and substantiation for our request to get our share back.

Incidental Catch in the Sablefish Fishery N. of Point Chehalis
In June, the Council began scoping potential changes to Pacific halibut allocations and requested information from the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) on the spatial distribution of the Pacific halibut exploitable biomass to assist their consideration of potential allocation changes. In preparation for future allocation discussions, WDFW would like to briefly recap the history of the incidental halibut allowance in the primary sablefish fishery north of Point Chehalis, and our thoughts relative to allocation changes to this sector in the future.

When the CSP was first developed in 1988, WDFW prioritized the Washington allocation to the recreational fishery north of Point Chehalis and the commercial directed was restricted to the area south of Point Chehalis. This was in part due to the fact that the CSP was developed during
a period of very low Area 2A TACs (~500,000 lbs) when it was unlikely that both a commercial and recreational fishery could be accommodated. At the time, many commercial fishermen who had traditionally fished for halibut along Washington’s northern coast felt this decision was unfair and, over the subsequent ten years, some of those vessels stopped fishing altogether and a
couple of processing companies in Seattle and Bellingham closed their businesses.

In response, WDFW proposed shifting a portion of the Washington recreational allocation to provide for incidental retention in the primary sablefish fishery north of Point Chehalis in years when the Area 2A TAC is higher, which was approved by the Council and in 2001. Specifically, when the 2A TAC is greater than 900,000 pounds, the primary directed sablefish fishery north of Point Chehalis would be allocated the Washington sport allocation that is in excess of 214,110 pounds, provided a minimum of 10,000 pounds is available. This allocation structure was modified in 2002 to cap the amount for the sablefish fishery at 70,000 pounds.

The Area 2A TAC has accommodated incidental catch of halibut in the primary sablefish fishery in all years except 2010 and 2011 since changes to the CSP were implemented in 2001. During this same period, there has been a significant increase in effort in the Washington recreational fishery, resulting in early quota attainment and shortened seasons.

Therefore, as discussions on potential allocation changes move forward, WDFW would be interested in considering whether revisions to the sablefish incidental allocation were warranted. Further, given that the sablefish incidental allocation came from the Washington sport allocation, WDFW would expect that any changes to the sablefish incidental allocation would shift back to the Washington recreational fishery.