Letters: Canadians Strongly Defend Their Halibut Accountability, Say US Should Emulate Them
SEAFOODNEWS.COM [Letters] February 25, 2015
Response to the February 17, 2015 Editor's View: Comments on the News This Week, and Is Halibut the New 'New England Cod'?
In his February 17, 2015 editorial, John Sackton asserts that halibut is in danger of becoming the North Pacific’s New England cod. He argues that several factors are compounding the problem, one of which is “the Canadians with an extremely poor record on the west coast. ” Clearly Mr. Sackton is unaware of the management regime in place in all commercial groundfish fisheries on Canada’s west coast, the steps Canada has taken to reduce halibut bycatch mortality and what the IPHC data for Canadian waters (IPHC Regulatory Area 2B) shows.
There are seven commercial groundfish fisheries conducted on Canada’s west coast -- Halibut, Sablefish, Inside Rockfish, Outside Rockfish, Lingcod, Dogfish and Groundfish Trawl. The fisheries are managed in an integrated manner such that all mortalities of directed species and non-directed species must be accounted for. To account for this mortality, fishermen must reallocate individual transferable quota (ITQ, or IFQ in the United States) between fisheries to cover all mortalities, regardless of whether the catch is kept, utilized at sea, or released at sea...
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