Oregon's commercial halibut fishery can be characterized as a derby fishery - one in which participants race for fish and take the quota in a short period of time. There are currently no limits on the number of participants in the fishery - anyone who wants to apply for a halibut fishing permit may participate in the fishery. The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) sets annual quotas for management areas off the coast of the United States and Canada. The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) uses a Catch Sharing Plan (CSP) to allocate the IPHC 2A quota off the coast of Washington, Oregon, and California between sport, commercial, and tribal entities. For 2008, the 2A quota is 1.22 million pounds (Table 1), down about 9% from the previous year (Figure 1).

Table 1: 2008 Pacific Halibut catch limits and fishery sector allocations in pounds.



Figure 1: 10-year Pacific halibut catch limit history for IPHC Area 2A.

New assessment methods have been recommended by the IPHC - 2008 and future assessments will be conducted on a coastwide basis. Apportionment methods used to set catch limits by area based on annual surveys continue to be studied by the IPHC staff and may change in the future. Halibut quotas are expected to go down due to the passage of 1987 and 1988 year classes. Quotas should trend upwards in a few years as there are early indications that the 1994, 1995, 1999, and 2000 year-classes of recruits are above average in abundance.

In 2006, the Port Orford Ocean Resource Team introduced a proposal to the Pacific Fishery Management Council to change the CSP and establish an incidental fishery south of 43° N. Lat. This fishery would have been managed with a small halibut quota to allow hook and line fishermen who target sablefish to retain incidentally caught halibut. Regulations for this fishery were to be similar to the non-treaty incidental fishery north of Pt. Chehalis. The Council felt that it was not time to consider the proposal and individual delegates expressed the need to look at other aspects of the CSP and perhaps POORT's proposal sometime in the future. POORT was advised by the Council to continue working with the Oregon delegation to refine the proposal and/or gather more support.

POORT is seeking input from commercial fishermen in area 2A to see if there is support for changes in management of the Pacific halibut commercial fishery (non-tribal). Through the following interview, POORT is trying to see if fishermen are satisfied with the fishery, and if not, what alternatives they might like to see regulators consider in the future. Port Orford fishermen would like to see an incidental catch fishery in the sablefish fishery, and there are some fishermen in other Ports who feel the same way. Our hope is to see if there is enough support to move ahead with a coastwide proposal to change the CSP and accommodate an incidental fishery for Pacific halibut, coastwide, or in other locations besides north of Pt. Chehalis.

PDF of Pacific Halibut Questionnaire

If you would like more information on Pacific Halibut and Pacific Halibut regulations, please visit the IPHC website.