February 1, 2016 — The International Pacific Halibut Commission on Friday approved an increase in halibut catch limits for most of the coast.
The joint U.S. and Canadian body oversees management of the prized bottom fish from California to Alaska. The commission held its annual meeting in Juneau last week.
Commissioners approved a coastwide catch of 29,890,000 pounds for 2016. That’s an increase of 2.2 percent from last year’s limits.
Commission chair Jim Balsiger of Juneau said the decisions were not easy.
“The discussions focused quite a bit, both in the public and in our executive sessions about the trade-offs we have to make between rebuilding the stocks and capturing some revenue in the fisheries now when things look a little bit better,” Balsiger said. “I’m happy where we ended up so I think it was a good meeting.”