They come for the halibut, but for now they can only have half of it!

Sport fisherman making plans for a north coast vacation this spring will be heading back home with a lighter load due to some new allocations in the halibut fishery.

DFO has issued a change to the recreational daily limit, cutting in half the daily fishing limit to one from April1 to May 31, the allocations return to a daily limit of two and a possession limit of two from June 1 to December 31.

The background on the decision and more details on what to expect were found in Monday’s Daily news.

Daily catch limit for halibut is halved to one fish
By Kris Schumacher
The Daily News
Monday, February 25, 2008
Pages one and three

The official fishing management regime for the 2008 recreational halibut fishery was released Thursday, changing the daily and possession limits.

In order to manage within domestic halibut allocations, DFO has changed the recreational fishery daily limit to one and the possession limit to three from April 1 to May 31. However, from June 1 to Dec. 31 the daily limit will be back at two fish, and the possession limit will also be two.

"We took another month so we could finish up all of the planning with the sport fishing community to make sure what we implemented is what they would like," said Gary Logan, DFO North Coast Fishery groundfish manager.

"We try to work very closely with the sport fishers, and commercial fishers if it's something that affects them as well.

"The Sport Fish Advisory Board and the Sport Fishing Institute are the primary mechanisms by which we communicate with the sport fishery, and we've been working with them on this since last fall as to how we can approach this next fishing season."

Logan said that talks worked through a range of options, but did include up-front principals, such as minimizing the in-season changes, and trying not to focus changes in one specific geographic area to avoid local economic impacts.

"It's always difficult when you're cranking things down, and we've had a reduction in the total allowable catch for halibut in Canada, so of course we have to manage accordingly because it is a treaty with the U.S.," said Logan.

"We're trying to do it in a manner that will achieve these objectives but at the same time minimize the impact on the fishers and their businesses themselves."

Logan also says reports that a weight limit on halibut had been imposed are entirely erroneous, and that the idea was simply one of many suggestions that DFO had brought to the table when the process began.

"When we develop management options and talk with people, you have to put everything on the table. Was [weight limit] something we talked about? Absolutely, but it was dismissed," said Logan.

"When we talk with fishers, some of the ideas fall off the table right away, but that's how you get to a point when you can agree on something. So we always start out with a giant list, and you whittle away at these things."

The Sport Fishing Institute of B.C. says that opting not to implement size limits was an obvious choice because it didn't make any sense.

"While most recreational halibut that are caught tend to be smaller, people still want to go fishing to try and catch a big fish," said Eric Kristianson of the Sport Fishing Institute of B.C. "Taking away that opportunity struck everybody as impractical and counterproductive."

However, he says the department's decision to implement a one halibut per day restriction up until June will have a dramatic impact on individual anglers and the charter boat sector.

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"Effectively, for a third of the season charter boat operators will be faced with a new restriction, and that's going to have an impact on them. Where charter operators have to travel greater distances to get to the halibut grounds, that's going to really discourage customers and we're very disappointed in that."

Kristianson said DFO was in the process of seeking to acquire quota from the commercial sector, in order to provide the recreational sector with greater ability to catch halibut in the future.

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"But really, what it underscores at the end of the day is that the allocation policy itself, that put us in this position of 88 to 12, is flawed," he said. "This is the direct result of that policy, a policy that we've been pushing the minister and department to revisit, because it's the source of the problem in the first place."