Recreational Fishing Alliance has produced a form letter to send to North Pacific Fisheries Management council. If you want to make a diference but don't have the time to write a letter, here is your chance. Just sign it, then send or fax the letter to the address below. Remember, we only have untill the end of the month to get our comments in.

North Pacific Fisheries Management Council
605 W. 4th, Suite 306
Anchorage, AK 99501-2252

fax 907 271 2817

If you are a member of a group, please inform the group leadership of this issue. The second link is to a form letter that groups can send in to make their voices heard.

www.gamefishin.com/members/rfa/ifqletter.htm
www.gamefishin.com/members/rfa/ifqgroup.htm

Mike ... finally talked to one the captains up north and he made it sound like it wan't too bad of a deal. In fact, the whole process was supposedly started by the sport industry to curb its growth as it has been explosive in recent years.

It doesn't appear it will affect existing operators too badly, only the newer ones.

Without following it too closely, I'm now in a quandry as to what to think about it. Initially, it sounded bad, but if it keeps things stable, then maybe it isn't so bad? Any thoughts if this line of resoning is true?

The problem I see is that any way you look at it, its still a recreational cap. It may not have an immediate effect, but whats happens in 10 years when the quota is used up? You can also look at it from an opposite way, what happens if halibut stocks plumett. So now a few charter boats cant make it any more. They sell there shares to the commercials. Now the total recreational share goes down, and prices go up because of limited competition.

It does not surpize me that the the charter you talked to supports it, most of them do. They stand to gain equity in a public resource for nothing, its free money. They can go borrow against their quota and get cash.

The counsil very easily could have came up with a similar management plan that did not result in ownership. They just didn't, and thats why we are fighting it.

Oh, and one last problem with it, Its illegal. If a judge see's it a giving ownership of a public resource to charters, it is simply illegal.

Hi Bob, The only reason the charter industry wanted IFQ's is because the npfmc was going to put us on a qota with no moritorium on the fishery. That means that when the qota is caught the season is shut down. You know you can't sell a trip for the following year if you can't promise halibut fishing. The IFQ was a last ditch effort to get something we could work with. It was the only way to posably give us some stability. The npfmc had already had two cut off dates for entry in to the fishery 1994 and 1995, but they failed to act.I don't like the IFQ thing but I see it as the only way to make it, as they have left us with no options. They are not interested in what we have to say. They do not like us. We do not have any real representation on the board or anyone they will listen to. as for going to court, No court in the past would touch this. When the npfmc speaks, It's the last word. We have spent a lot of money and time fighting this and this is all we are going to get. The npfmc should be called the north pacific fisherys comerical council. It will affect the new guys the most, But everybody has had fair warning since 1995, that something was going to happen.