Charter operators explore plan to purchase pool of quota
The bumper stickers aren't as common as they once were in Sitka, but the tension they expressed between commercial and charter halibut fishermen is still there.
What the bumper stickers lack in brevity is more than made up for in animus "I'd rather see my daughter working in a whorehouse than on a charter boat."
While ill-will simmers hotter in Sitka than elsewhere in the state as home to hundreds of commercial fishermen and dozens of charter operations, the sides remain at odds as the National Marine Fisheries Service takes comment on a proposed plan to divide the halibut harvest.
NMFS released the draft rule July 22 of the catch sharing plan approved by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in October 2008, and is taking comment until Sept. 6.
The NMFS mailbox figures to fill up as charter operators contemplate what the proposed rule would have meant for their sector were it in place this year.
In a prime example of where commercial and charter can't see eye-to-eye, both sides believe they are losing allocation under the proposed rule.
Under the proposed rule, the combined commercial and charter harvest will be divided as a percentage between the sectors, a change from the current fixed pounds allocated to the central Gulf of Alaska (3.65 million pounds) and Southeast (788,000 pounds).
Based on the percentages selected by the North Pacific council, the charter allocation would have been cut by about 31 percent, or about 1.4 million pounds, if it were in effect this year, with those pounds going to the commercial fleet.
If amounts of commercially exploitable halibut (32 inches or longer) continue the trend of decline, the cuts in allocation to the charter sector could be even more severe next year.
Further, central Gulf anglers stand to see their daily bag limit cut from two fish of any size to one fish in 2012 under the proposed catch share plan, or CSP, that ties bag limits to levels of abundance.
Commercial fishermen acknowledge that the charter sector is losing pounds, but they point out severe cuts in allocation they've endured over the last several years, countering that the guided anglers are getting a larger percentage than when the harvest level was set in 2000.
The charter guideline harvest level, or GHL, represented about 13 percent of the combined Southeast harvest at levels of high abundance earlier in the decade.
Under the current low levels of exploitable halibut, the charter allocation in Southeast was 28 percent of the combined harvest in 2011.
Alaskan Small Boat Charters - News
CATCH is funded through a $200000 grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation awarded to Southeast Alaska Guide Organization and Alaska Charter Association. The goal is to find a way for the charter sector to purchase pounds from the

The charter skippers -- who form the backbone of the Homer tourism business -- would be forced to make do with the other 15 percent. Merril is due in Homer for a Friday evening meeting to explain to locals the need for the plan. The Alaska Charter
When the ferry resumed service on May 31, the port still had $126000 from grants and charter revenues on hand. That has been spent, and the port is dipping into the $200000 it set aside to subsidize service this year. The port has $188000 left and
The original plan involved using local charter boat operators for tours, but there weren't enough with the appropriate licenses and insurance. Then Island Heritage had to draft training manuals for local tour guides. "It was wide open," Anderson said.
The Polar Spirit continues to move between Kenai, Alaska and Japan. Both these vessels will be on their current time-charters into the fourth quarter at a minimum. The charter of the Artic has two one year extension options available at attractive
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