PETERSBURG – The Petersburg Vessel Owners Association hosted a presentation by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) exploring long-term halibut trends.
IPHC Executive Director Bruce Leaman and quantitative scientist Ian Stewart presented the findings and fielding questions from the audience. The data collected look at halibut stocks from across the Pacific, from Alaska to British Columbia, Canada and south to Washington and Oregon.
Stewart said that the IPHC has 100 years worth of data on the Pacific stock of halibut, which help IPHC to examine trends in things like biomass apportionment, removals and size by age. They can also look at trends in the fishery related to by-catch, quotas, and harvest policy.
Some things, like sex identification, migration and spawning trends have proven more difficult to collect information on, though the IPHC continues to explore programs to further expand their research in those areas, as they’re important to get a full picture of the complex Pacific halibut stock.
In general, the bulk of biomass for halibut is found in the Gulf of Alaska and many coastwise trends for the stock pull toward the trends of those fish. The major coastwise trend for the stock in the past five years is that the stock is flat after a long period of decline.
Though things look a bit different in local waters, area 2C. “2C has kind of got a different trend going on than the other regulatory areas and frankly it’s kind of nice to see an area that does have some positive trends going on,” Stewart said.
Other divergent trends between 2C and the coastwide average include catch rates, weight of fish and age of fish.
“In 2C…for the last four years we’ve seen an increase in fishery catch rates…with a 10 percent increase from 2012 to 2013. At the coastwise level, the fishery catch rates have actually dropped slightly,” Stewart said.
He also said that 2C fishermen are landing heavier halibut.
“On average you guys have been seeing fish that are heavier than the coastwise average. In fact, heavier than most fish in most of the regulatory area over this whole time period (1990-2013).”
The weight of the fish isn’t necessarily correlated with their age, though. Stewart explained that most halibut caught in this area are younger than 15 years old. Halibut are considered mature between 11-12 years of age.
Several audience members had questions about topics ranging from trends in the data to the usefulness of the data given the politics of the commissioners.
Leaman said that the multiple models now being used by IPHC are helping them to identify the central tendency of the stock and that the information gleaned from their surveys is useful in understanding the outcomes of different decisions commissioners ultimately make.
“We’re trying to say ‘what we’re gonna give you is our best understanding of the stock and our best understanding of the consequences of the different decisions you (commissioners) might make.’ It’s then their job to do that. They have that authority and they have the responsibility,” Leaman said.
Data on the 2014 halibut fishery is still being collected and will be presented at IPHC’s 91st annual meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia on Jan. 25 through Jan. 30. The Commission will also approve catch limits and regulations by the meeting’s conclusion.
University of Alaska Fairbanks fisheries PhD student Elizabeth Figus also spoke briefly at the meeting about research she is doing for her dissertation. Figus will be interviewing halibut fishermen in Southeast early next year to “document opinions… about at-sea monitoring and the new federal observer program,” according to a flyer she gave out.
Fishermen interested in participating in an interview with Figus can call her at (732) 749-0319 or e-mail her at ecfigus@alaska.edu.
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