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Re: New Halibut Rules and Regs
By Allan R. (Rudy) McGillvray

 

February 09, 2011
Wednesday PM


To Whom it may Concern, (which is all Americans)... these new rules being promulgated by NOAA, and their soupy brothers, strike me as being a "restraint of trade" in addition to being a restraint of friendship. That would fall under "Pursuit of Happiness" which is a God-given right -- not, given by the govt. The govt. who believes that its population needs governing and that its power to do so, rests with said govt. Not as our Constitution says, "The power of the govt. rests with the people, and is given by the people to the govt. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND!

Now I have no objection to tourists supporting our fisheries by charter; but if you want to know where the commercially available halibut are going, it rests with the size limits, being imposed on the halibut charter fleet. In that they are a commercial operation, they should be restricted to a size of fish no LESS THAN 32". Not less than 37"long; which is where the commercial size fish come from.

Halibut are not born either under or over 32" in length. They actually grow from spat size to harvestable size over a period of about 7-8 years. Now, if all the 'sporties' are restricted in size to less than commercially available to others (commc'l fishers) then your quota size will drop because they, the resource is being overfished. Then no one will have an oportunity to fish for them.

The size of harvestable halibut should be the same for everyone, a 'sportie' or a commercial fisherman. A regulatory agency did set the minimum size allowable, at 32", due to the fact they found that to be a size which would allow for replacement of the resource.

Yours for lots of Halibut,

Allan R. (Rudy) McGillvray
Ketchikan, AK

About: "Long-time Alaskan and a former commc'l halibut fisherman"

Received February 06, 2011 - Published February 09, 2011

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