The rumor mill has been running full steam lately about next years halibut regs. I was wondering if someone has some insight as to what the changes will be if any.
The rumors I have been hearing is they are going to have slot sizes for retaining halibut. Reduce amount of halibut any one person can retain in a year. Extend the season to be able to retain the limited halibut.
Does anyone know what has been said or considered by the powers that be that decide the regs?

Lots of talking going on. There is interest in getting away from the derby mentality that WDFW has pushed the sport fleet to. 10 years ago, we had 80 day seasons in Puget Sound. Now, we are fishing 11 days and according to WDFW are catching as many pounds of fish in 11 days as we were catching in 80 days. The are real issues with crowding at the ramps and safety issues when we are forced to fish specific days without regard to sea and weather conditions. Two fishers were lost last year off Whidbey Island. The ocean fishery has similar issues with safety and crowding and their fish are being caught in 4 days.

There was a meeting in Port Townsend a couple of weeks ago. Initial proposal was for a 6 fish annual limit and a season running from whenever IPHC opens the season (usually in March) to June 30. There will be more meetings with the state to explore options for 2016 or 2017. In addition to the halibut issues, there are some concerns over the impact of the rec halibut fleet on listed rockfish both in the ocean and in Puget Sound. Any change to the season structure is going to be a long process.

The challenge for all of us is staying within the IPHC quotas that are assigned the area 2A (N. California, OR, and WA). In round numbers, there is about 990,000 lbs for 2A. California gets the smallest share, OR gets a larger amount, and WA gets the lions share. WA share is divided between non-tribal commercial, tribal, and recreational. The recreational quota is divided between the ocean shares and Puget Sound.

The 2A states have a catch share plan. The state(s) have a lot of latitude in what is recommended for passage of the federal regulations by the PFMC as long as the states stay within the IPHC quotas. PFMC makes the final rules.

There was slot limits for some halibut charters in certain areas, but none for sport anglers as far as I know --yet.

Websites with information:

IPHC website
http://www.iphc.washington.edu/home.html

PFMC website
http://www.pcouncil.org/

Thanks for posting the links, LL. Folks need to wade through them to get some background on the management scheme at the federal level. The states can be more restrictive than the federal regulations. The IPHC quota is what drives the process. While they deal in pounds, there might be room to go to numbers of fish as long as the poundage is not exceeded.

It would be nice to fish butt's in June again with some nicer weather....Good luck,

SZ

Yeah maybe that would get you off the salmon so the little guys could catch a few!

LMFAO. Good one Doc. Good luck,

SZ

Not sure how a 6 fish limit changes anything when we are talking about 4-11 day fisheries.

The charter boats predicted this outcome over 10 years ago when the major changes to Area 3-4 halibut were proposed and accepted by WDFW. I'm sure there would have been shortened seasons regardless based on the increased numbers of people with ocean-capable boats, improved electronics, and internet hotspotting but the season should have never been moved from May 1 and the closure between Neah Bay and La Push should never have been opened up.

The true fixes would hurt a bit. An annual limit of 2 plus bans on electric reels for the non-disabled would make a dent. Close areas known to have larger halibut and try to refocus the fleet on chicken sized fish. You have to reduce the fleet's effectiveness as well as the average size of the fish to have any real impact on season length. Those would be pretty unpopular rules though.

I took full advantage of the changed rules I opposed and the average weight on my boat went from 20-30 to 50-70 overnight. An entire fleet doing that cuts the season in half overnight. Sometimes WDFW has to make hard choices and protect us from own greed. They failed on the coast when they refused to listen to the people most familiar with the fishery.