The halibut harvest for the year in fisheries in the United States and Canada was about 26.5 million pounds, or approximately 95 percent of the 27.9 million total allowable catch.
Although some areas such as the West Coast, comprising Washington and Oregon, harvested 99 percent of their quotas, other areas harvested a smaller percentage, such as Southeast Alaska, which only brought in 92 percent of its quota.
According to the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, the opening price at the beginning of this season was around USD 4.50 (EUR 3.97) per pound, which was down more than USD 2 (EUR 1.76) from the price at the beginning of the 2017 season. The competition from Atlantic halibut likely influenced the price for the Pacific catch.
The final landings report was issued on 15 November, with the International Pacific Halibut Commission gathering in Seattle to analyze and discuss the data at the end of last month. The full annual meeting surrounding landings is scheduled to take place in January 2019 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
After last year’s International Pacific Halibut Commission meeting, the group decided to cut harvest quotas by 20 percent across the fishery due to a drop in halibut numbers throughout the entire Pacific fishery. Scientists on the commission believed that the drop in numbers was due to juvenile fish not surviving to adulthood, a trend they traced back to around the 2009-2010 season. Takeaways from this year’s meeting will help determine the quota for next year.
Over the past seven years, the total allowable catch in Alaska has been reduced by 46 percent (about 15 million pounds). More recently, the total allowable catch in British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon has gone down 16 percent (1.2 million pounds) from 2017 to 2018.
Image courtesy of the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute
