Alaska halibut in short supply

As expected, there will be fewer halibut available for fishermen to catch this year — an 18 percent reduction to 33 million pounds, split among fisheries along the West Coast, British Columbia and Alaska. That follows a 19 percent cut to the catch last year.

The announcement was made at the International Pacific Halibut Commission’s annual meeting last week in Anchorage. Alaska always gets the lion’s share of the catch, which this year will be 25.5 million pounds.

Driving the decreases: Pacific halibut stocks continue a decade-long decline, fish are smaller than they should be at age, and, most troubling, scientists believe they have overestimated the halibut biomass for years.

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