Introduction | Alaska Salmon | Alaska Halibut | Alaska Pollock & Cod

Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) are not only an important part of Alaska’s fishing economy, like salmon, they have been and still are significant subsistence food for Alaska Native people.

Because halibut migration patterns are fairly well known, scientists can estimate the biomass or standing crop of halibut, part of which might be made available to a fishery. Halibut are a prolific, long-lived species and they spawn many times in their lives. Environmental conditions in the ocean have always been changing, and the abundance of fishes changes along with the environment. Halibut’s combination of fertility and longevity works to dampen those natural fluctuations. This allows fisheries scientists to observe and react to trends in the stocks.

Pacific halibut are caught almost everywhere in the Gulf of Alaska and the Bering Sea, on the 795,100 square-mile continental shelf off Alaska, in both state and federal waters. Halibut are harvested by independent fishermen, most of whom are owner-operators. The only type of fishing gear that may be used to catch halibut is longline gear. No nets, including trawls, are allowed. Longlines are set along the seabed, with baited hooks every few yards. Because the lines are deep, they rarely come in contact with marine birds or mammals. Longline hooks are retrieved one at a time so the fishermen can unhook other species of fish and return them alive to the sea, without bringing them on board. In these ways, halibut longlining is a very clean fishery, with minimal impact on marine birds, mammals, and other species.

The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC), based in Seattle, Washington, is the USA-Canada organization that studies halibut all along the Pacific coast of North America. Each year, IPHC biologists in consultation with fisheries biologists from the USA and Canada, scientifically estimate the biomass of Pacific halibut and the recruitment (natural addition of young halibut) to the stock. Then, the IPHC makes its best estimate of the fraction of that biomass that may be safely and sustainably caught. This is a methodical, painstaking process, because in addition to the estimates of total biomass and harvest quotas, the IPHC also apportions those catches among various statistical areas, based on abundance.

After the IPHC’s scientific work is done, management moves to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC) in Anchorage, Alaska. For many years the Alaska halibut fishery was open to anyone who wanted to participate, but that changed in 1995. To manage the fishery better, NPFMC decided on a system of Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQs), one of the first such systems in the USA and one of most successful in the world. IFQs are a system of property rights to the fish. Since 1995, anyone fishing for halibut must own sufficient IFQ shares to match the amount of fish they wish to land. There are limits on the amount of shares that any individual may own. This prevents excessive accumulation of shares by any person or company. If an individual wants to catch more halibut than they have shares, they can buy existing shares from another person. Harvest is allowed anytime between March and November.

Other successes and benefits of the Alaska halibut fishery are:

The fishery is carefully and closely monitored by the (U.S.) National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

Natural variability is explicitly taken into account, because IFQ shares are percentages of an annually variable harvest quota, rather than for a certain amount of fish. That is, an individual’s share would remain constant, but the total, science-based quota varies in accordance with the natural fluctuations of the halibut population.

Far less fishing gear is left on the fishing grounds because the fishery is less frantic than in previous years. This reduces unwanted catch by abandoned gear.

Seafood quality is better because steady landings allow for better on-boat handling and prompt processing.

As with salmon, the Alaska halibut fishery supports a thriving fishing and processing industry in scores of small towns all along Alaska’s coast. Alaska’s halibut resource is healthy and abundant, and its fishery is rational and sustainably managed.