I wish this was the only bad news but I have more.
First, Westport has about 8000 pounds left and they are not likely to use
it any time soon because they are all booked up on salmon. Illwaco is unknown, but it will last a while because of lack of pressure.
Specifics: Neah Bay is expected to meet or possibly exceed their quota by Tuesday. If they exceed this amount that may take away one of the days in July. The agreement actually requires that May be the priority month but as a compromise they make sure that we still have quota for July.
The catch data is based off a 60%-70% sampling rate and a average size of
19.3 lbs.
The bigger concern is how we are doing on yelloweye. After speaking with
Brian Culver from WDFW, he has some concern that we may cut off some or
all of our July halibut season on Yelloweye impacts. He has no way to be
confident that it will be an issue, he just has concern.
Catch data for yelloweye has been based on 8 to 10 ride along surveys aboard charter boats so far (about 2 a week) and angler survey at the docks upon return. The problem with the angler survey is that there are about 4 different species that look similar to yelloweye and is very likely that they are receiving a lot of bad information. In the coming months there will be both a long line survey and a submarine survey that will be used for stock assessment purposes.
Next year:
The problem gets worse. This year we had a 3 Metric ton limit on yelloweye for Washington. As of right now we are looking at a .4 to 1.4 metric ton limit for THE ENTIRE COAST, NORTHERN CALIFORNIA TO CANADA.
If we are stuck with even the 1.4 mt limit, we will be seeing a closure
of all fishing in waters deeper than 25 fathoms except we may be able to
open areas in waters where yelloweye are not found, spot openings rather
than spot closures. Salmon will be excluded. This goes for commercials too.
_________________________
Mike Gilchrist
Previous Topic
Index
