Learned something new last month when we were halibut fishing up the north end of Vancouver Island.* The limit in BC is one per day with two in possessession.* When we came in with our first fish, a 40+ pounder, we were met at the dock by a girl from Canadian fisheries.* She had just graduated from college and was working for the fisheries department full time and was going to go on to get her advanced degree in whatever you study to know all about fish and marine life.* She was not enforcing licenses, she was collecting data on what was caught each day.
She asked us if we'd caught anything and I said yes.* She asked how big and I said, "I don't know, 60 pounds maybe."* Hey, it felt likd 60 pounds hauling it into the boat.* She asked, "Did you let it go?"* I looked at her like she was nuts and said, "No."
She kinc of winced and said, "Well, it's totally up to the fisherman but we encourage people to let halibut that are bigger than 60 or 70 pounds go."* The reason, she explained, is that all halibut that are this size and larger are females and each one carries 300,000 to 500,000 eggs.
As it turned out this first fish was only a bit over 40 pounds.* But the second one the next day was over 60.* The girl was there again but she didn't give us the "let them go" lecture again.* Actually, another group of fishermen came in the same time we did, and they had caught a 240 poiund halibut.* The father of the fellow that caught it runs a fishing resort near where we were and he told us that when they knew thay had a big one on (it took an hour to get it to the boat) they had this big debate--- should we do what we tell our guests to do and let it go or keep it?* WHen they got it up and saw how big it was they practiced what they preach and let it go.
So we all had an interesting discussion about halibut preservation while all of us were cleaning our fish at the cleaning station on the dock.* Having caught two, I had two in possession so I was done halibut fishing for this trip.* We could have bought a license for my wife and then caught two more but the two we got will last us for a long time and getting more would have just been cathing them for the sake of catching them.
A co-worker who has done a lot of halibut fishing in Alaska in Cook Inlet told me that a friend of his who is a guide there has told him that whle there are planety of halibut around up there they are mostly small ones.* The huge monsters that used to be common have been pretty much fished out.
So as much as an ego trip as it is to come in with a 80 or 120 or 200 pound fish we'll be letting them go from here on (assuming we actually catch any that big).
Incidentally, while the fisheries girl was encouraging people to let anyting over 60 or 70 pounds go, the official recommendation from Canada fisheries is anything over 90 pounds (my wife later read the notice in the office of where we were statying).
In case anyone is wondering how you can know the weight without landing the fish, there is a chart that shows lengths in inches and the corresponding average weights.* Halibut will often lie very docile next to the boat when you bring them up unless you touch them or pull their heads out of the water.* So it's not hard to get an accurate measurment of the fish while it's in the water beside you.
-- Edited by Marin on Sunday 18th of July 2010 01:43:56 AM
