The Right Plan

Due to the 4 year delay by the NPFMC and NMFS, causing the current dilemma we face, and the lack of council action to mitigate the damage the industry will face we feel the most fair and correct action would be to initiate a proposal for a government purchase of the required halibut quota in each area as needed to be added to the GHL’s to cover the 2007 and perhaps the 2008 charter catch with no reductions in bag limit or season length. This buy out of quota would be at the expense of the government due to their responsibility. The commercial fleet should not be burdened with having the government take quota from them, especially recognizing the many fully purchased commercial quota holdings, and the charter industry should not bear the burden when the council process failed to restrict the entry into the industry, or correcting the GHL to float with abundance and “Catch up” on the recent stock increases allocated through the IFQ’s to the commercial fleet only. The charter industry is not capable of purchasing the needed quota as an industry or individually. This would provide a possible launch point for the charter industry’s inclusion into the existing IFQ program with no financial requirement for all current moratorium qualified operators.

This has been talked about quite a bit between those who want an end to the allocation battle and equality with their neighbors, commercial long line fishermen. If we can get a push-start we can do it.