Fishermen face one-halibut bag limit again

The one-halibut bag limit for Southeast guided fishermen is back.

"It's a stab in the heart of our industry," said Rick Bierman, Juneau Charter Boat Operators Association.

Charters and lodge owners last year vigorously fought the rule, saying it would send their clients to Southcentral, where the limit is still two fish a day. In a Washington, D.C., court, they successfully argued a procedural point.

The National Marine Fisheries Service fixed the procedural problem and reissued the rule.

Bierman said the charters might fight again.

They've laid the groundwork by commenting on the draft rule. Now their lawyer needs to review the final rule's language and decide whether it can be challenged. Just like last year - except they're running out of money, Bierman said.

"We won last year. But that cost an awful lot of money, and it's hard to think we'll be able to keep raising that money," Bierman said.

As the number of charters in the region grew, the bag limit didn't change, and the guideline harvest was exceeded each year since 2004.

Last year, the guideline harvest dropped, hence last year's one-fish rule. But as the charters won their two-fish fight, their clients' harvest stayed the same as the year before, meaning they caught twice as much fish as the federal agency wanted them to.

NMFS officials say the exceedances undermine the international commission's conservation strategy. The bag limit is also a matter of allocation, because as charters take more, there is less available for commercial fishermen.

Doug Mecum, acting administrator of NMFS, described the bag limit in a statement as solving an "immediate need," while the long-term solution for managing the halibut fishery should be that charters join a catch-sharing program.

NMFS officials are charged with managing each sector to its limit, but they don't decide the limit. The International Pacific Halibut Commission figures out how much halibut there is and how much should be caught in each area, and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council divvies up the Southeast total between the sectors.

The longliners' Halibut Coalition agrees with NMFS and supports the bag limit.

"The charter industry in Southeast has been allowed to grow unchecked for too many years," said Wrangell fisherman Alan Reeves in a statement from the Halibut Coalition.

Longliners are taking another deep cut this year. The fleet is allowed 5 million pounds, a halving of its 10-million-pound annual catches from 2004 to 2006.

Other than the one-fish limit, the new rule for fishing charters says anglers can use one fishing line. Halibut charters can have a maximum of six lines. Charter operators, guides and crew may not catch or retain halibut during charter trips.

• Contact reporter Kate Golden at 523-2276 or kate.golden@juneauempire.com.