Thursday, February 22, 2007

IPHC director to be in Homer

IPHC Director Bruce Leaman at the Oceans and Islands Visitor Center from 2:00pm to 5:00pm on Saturday February 24th in an open forum for discussion on the recent IPHC 1 halibut bag limit reduction. If you have an issue or question this is your opportunity to get it aired.

Here's is a suggested list of questions you may want to use--add, delete or whatever anyone feels is appropiate.

1) What are the biological concerns in area 2C and area 3A?

2) During 2007, the CEY is scheduled to be exceeded in 6 out of 8 management areas, why?

3) The NPFMC is and was working a variety of measures to address charter anglers' harvests, if there is no biological concern, why did the IPHC take action?

4) Can we expect the IPHC to act independently in the future, regardless of ongoing NPFMC proceedings?

5) In the past, area 2C had overages that far exceeded 3A's projected 8-9% overage for 2006, why didn't the IPHC take action in 2C during previous years?

6) How is the action in 3A justified?

7) Do you feel it is best to use the GHL numbers or ADF&G projected catch figures in calculating the CEY for future harvest levels?

8) Concerning the GHL and past overages, was the GHL number used in past years in calculating the CEY or were the ADF&G projected catch figures used? If the IPHC changed how it calculated the CEY just this year, why? If the IPHC didn't change methods of calculation, why didn't the IPHC take action in previous years when the GHL's were exceeded?

9) Do you feel it is "more appropiate" for the IPHC to handle these issues, or do you think it should be handled by the NPFMC?

10) Do you feel the NPFMC's process is broken?

11) What do you think the economic consequences to coastal communities are because of the IPHC decision?

2 comments:

Flatfish said...

What happened at the Islands and Oceans. I was not able to attend and would like to hear some opinions about the discussion. How many people were there? Did he have all the answers? What was the feel of the 1 fish issue? Let us shut-ins know.
Thanks, gary

mark said...

Standing room only. The one fish issue is probably going away for now. Tho a few tried, the director proved unflapppable. I'm sure glad he's in charge and not some of the finger-pointing, interrupting individuals that came with the intent of clamorously injecting their self-serving perspectives into the mix. At least most of the comments/attacks could be readily dismissed as ballyhoo. Could people have really believed that if they yelled PUDDING SKIN IS GREAT ON TUNA SANDWICHES the gentleman would realize that, indeed, he's done it wrong all this time? And, if they think it is in their best interest to make their guests feel unwelcome, they havn't been in the business very long.
Some of us didn't grasp that projections are a guess. Better data still won't tell us exactly what fish will show up next year. Are they asking that we bring every damn fish back to the dock so that the guess is possibly a little more accurate? What must be born in mind is if that guess is spot-on perfect, we still have a growth problem. The worst thing that could happen to us is to find a short-term solution by massaging numbers.