Council votes 8-3 to study halibut bycatch rules for Golden Fleece replacement vessel

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted 8-3 on Tuesday to launch a regulatory analysis that could strip a replacement vessel of the halibut bycatch exemptions originally granted to the Golden Fleece in 2007, putting one vessel's special status under scrutiny at a time when halibut stocks across the Gulf of Alaska are at historic lows.

The trigger was a NOAA Fisheries report confirming the Golden Fleece, which has not fished in the Gulf since 2022, is eligible to be replaced by a different vessel. Under current rules, that replacement vessel would inherit the exemption from halibut prohibited species catch (PSC) sideboard limits and would not be subject to the same Amendment 80 monitoring requirements that apply to Amendment 80 trawl catcher processors operating in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands.

The motion's sponsor argued conditions have changed. "The permit the Golden Fleece operated in the Gulf of Alaska with is unique," one council member said. "It was granted exemptions in 2007 under conditions that have significantly changed. The state of the halibut stock has changed dramatically since 2007. This council has heard about that through public testimony, and information on this is readily available to the International Pacific Halibut Commission."

Opponents said the action was premature. "We heard from the catcher vessel fleet that would be sharing the PSC limit at this meeting, and they were comfortable with giving that a go to see how that goes," one dissenting member said. "The boat will have 100% observer coverage, and I feel pretty good about that for the Gulf fishery, and I think this is premature future and speculative, and I want to see a problem before launching into a reg package for one vessel with our limited resources that we have."

A supporting member flagged the monitoring gap specifically. "The original vessel for which the sideboard exemption and different monitoring requirements were provided in current regulations is differently situated than the replacement vessel," that member said, "and I am a little concerned particularly about the difference in monitoring requirements, just given when the current monitoring requirements in the Gulf were established for the Golden Fleece versus how we have improved since that time."

Staff will now prepare an amendment document with two alternatives beyond no action: one removing the sideboard exemption for any replacement vessel, and one applying Amendment 80 monitoring requirements from the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands to Amendment 80 trawl catcher processors operating in the Gulf. The vote came during staff tasking, after public testimony in which several members raised concerns about limited staff resources available to take on new regulatory work.