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The
International Pacific Halibut Commission released its 2012 catch limits Friday morning, and as expected, there were significant cuts in most areas.
We'll have
much more on Monday, but briefly, Area 3A, the Gulf of Alaska will experience a
17-percent reduction from last year. That results in a 11.9-million pound catch
limit, down 2.4-million pounds.
Area 3B
along the Alaska Peninsula southwest of Kodiak Island, the reduction is the
same 2.4-million pounds, but the percentage reduction is 32 percent, down to
just over 5-million pounds. In Area 4A, the eastern Aleutians, the cut is 35
percent.
Jeff
Stephan is the manager of the United Fishermen's Marketing Association
in Kodiak:
"I think people have been
anticipating this was on its way the last few years," he said. "More and more the
retrospective analysis have been indicating the assessment models have been
overestimating biomass, and when they look back over there's always the
indication that there's probably been a little bit higher catch limit than what
otherwise might have been established."
In the North Pacific as a whole, from Washington to Russia,
limits were down 18-percent, or 7.5-million pounds.
The only
areas that did not get reductions were off the Washington coast in Area 2A,
which will get a 9-percent increase, and Area 2C in Southeast Alaska, which
will get a 13 percent bump, up almost 300,000 pounds.
We'll have
more reaction to the IPHC numbers on Monday's newscasts.
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LegHead (ledj-hed) Report weekdays at 12:20 p.m.
"When Crab was King," Thursdays at 7:15 p.m. and Saturdays at 5:15 p.m.
Weekdays at 12:20 p.m.
