Federal fisheries managers have instituted new regulations for charter halibut fishing in Southeast and Southcentral Alaska this year. Anglers charter fishing in these regions must have a charter halibut stamp in order to keep their catch.
The stamp costs $20 per day and the money will go to a nonprofit called the Recreational Quota Entity.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, charter boat operators are the ones in charge of buying the stamps. David Ardinger, who asked to be referred to as Captain Dave, is the owner and operator of Fish ‘N Chips Charters in Kodiak. He said he wishes it was on the angler to buy the halibut stamp, which is the case for the king salmon stamp. But he’s not against the stamp in general.
“It’s a good idea, the idea of a halibut stamp, because they’re going to use the money to buy commercial IFQs," he said.
By buying individual fishing quotas or IFQs from the commercial fishing industry, the Recreational Quota Entity will ultimately up the number of halibut that charter boats can harvest. But Captain Dave said it’s a small fix for a larger problem.
Pacific halibut abundance has been dropping over the past few years; last year’s catch was down 16% from the year before, which was already the lowest on record in over a century. The International Pacific Halibut Commission set the total limit for fishermen in all sectors across the west coast at 29.3 million pounds for this year–down from 41 million pounds in 2022.
Captain Dave said this hurts the individual quotas for commercial fishermen, whose individual fishing quotas, or IFQs, fluctuate depending on halibut availability.
"I have a friend that had at one time 85,000 pounds," he said. "You know what today his 85,000 pounds is? 16,000 pounds.”
That means the piece of the pie commercial and charter fishermen are able to catch, even with the halibut stamps, is getting smaller. Fisheries scientists haven’t been able to pinpoint the exact cause of the halibut decline, but they think climate change and overfishing have played a part.
Trawling is also central to the conversation about halibut. The industry has faced fierce critique from commercial and recreational fishermen for its bycatch of halibut and other species. This year, trawlers are allowed to take 3,759,000 of halibut as bycatch in the Gulf of Alaska. Charter boats are allowed to catch less than half that amount, 1,470,000 total pounds, in the Central Gulf.
Captain Dave said that as long as halibut stocks continue to decline, buying out quotas from the commercial fishing sector is just kicking the can down the road.
“Are we fixing the problem? No, we’re not fixing the problem. Are we addressing the problem? No. Are we talking about the problem? No, we’re not," he said.
As of last year, halibut regulations for the Southcentral region also prohibit charter boat fishermen from retaining halibut on all Wednesdays, or on Tuesdays between June 2 and August 25.
