Today, in Anchorage, the sky is clear and sun is shinning, implying it’s a lovely day, however the temperature is a very nippy -18 degrees Celsius. Regardless of the weather, it is a remarkable day as the International Pacific Halibut Commission is holding its annual general meeting this week for the 100th time. The honourable distinction being, this is the longest running country-to-country fisheries management commission out there. That is quite a feat!
We must also acknowledge modern day technology that allows people to participate meaningfully in meetings via virtual attendance online. So here I am, your SVIAC IPHC rep in a warm room in Victoria, BC looking out my window at hummingbirds feeding, while weighing in virtually on all matters halibut. So we keep our voting status on the IPHC Conference Board and maintain our presence in the Canadian delegation. Our coalition’s board of directors felt the heavy cost of travel to Anchorage as well as hotel and meal expense (Approx. $5,000) could be better invested in rearing Chinook or advocating to save our salmon fishery, especially when we keep participating seamlessly.
Whether online or sitting in Anchorage, Alaska at the Captain Cook Hotel ballroom for this meeting, the interested parties and reps are all busy discussing, negotiating and pressuring a decision on what the annual catch limits will be in 2024. Decisions are based on the IPHC science presentation about the halibut stock health and abundance, then recommendations for fisheries will be made taking conservation into account. The process has worked well for one hundred years.
For ardent halibut anglers there is much uncertainty around the 2024 season. Due to good weather and good fishing Canadian anglers and busy angling tourism trade, our sector caught more than their allotted halibut by early September last year, forcing the season to close early. Worse still the 9,600 lbs over excess catch will be subtracted from the 2024 recreational allowable catch. For that reason, the hope and prayers are there for our delegation to secure a reasonable 2024 allowable catch for Canada, so we don\\t have our fishery decimated.
While still too early in the week to tell where we will land between the two countries regarding 2024 total catch by all sectors, there will most likely be less total allowable catch for Canada and USA for conservation reasons. Also, it appears clear that so far, the Commissioners can not reach a decision on a long-term agreement for catch between Canada and USA and seem unlikely an agreement can be reached this week. At worst, an outcome that has happened a couple of times before, is deadlock (no agreement), where the Commissioners can not reach consensus. In that case, the countries are, by the terms of reference, expected to use the prior years total allowable as a baseline.
So, by Friday morning, the sausage making will be over and the Commissioners will announce what has been decided (or not).
We all wait with bated breath!
