November 2, 2017 — CHATHAM, Mass. — On the U.S. side of the border Atlantic halibut are listed as a species of concern by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and fishermen are limited to one fish per trip.
Less than a half a day’s steam to the east, the same fish is the poster child for sustainable fishery management and generates between $100 million and $200 million a year for Canadian fishermen.
It’s a divergence shrouded in mystery as deep as the ocean on either side of the Hague Line, the boundary that separates the two nations out to the 200 mile limit of their exclusive economic zones. The target date to rebuild the U.S. Atlantic halibut stock to healthy levels is 2056, nearly 40 years in the future.
But Cape Cod fishermen believe the future may be happening now. They have been seeing more halibut in recent years and believe the science is wrong.
“Yes, we’re seeing more halibut, continuously,” said Jason Amaru, the captain and owner of the Chatham-based trawler Joanne A III. “The population seems to be recovering.”
Last year, the Nature Conservancy received a $270,000 federal grant to work with fishermen, scientists from NOAA, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, the Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Canada, and the Cape Cod Commercial Fishermen’s Alliance to place satellite tags on halibut and take biological samples.
Grant money pays for Amaru to attach the tracking devices, which cost more than $3,000 each. He also takes biological samples: the ear bones that determine age, gonads that tell the stage of sexual maturity, the heart for genetic analysis, and documents where the fish was caught, its weight and length.
“Four years ago, we were talking to fishermen. They said they were seeing more halibut than ever before. It used to be like seeing a unicorn, one a year, then once a month, now every day,” said Christopher McGuire, marine program director for The Nature Conservancy in Massachusetts, who spearheaded the drive for research money after listening to Cape fishermen. “We see that one fish a day being landed by a lot of fishermen.”
McGuire said he hopes the new data will show whether a resurgent Canadian halibut population is repopulating U.S. waters, or whether the U.S. fish are experiencing their own population boom.
Read the full story at the Cape Cod Times