Fishery council will study letting Southeast charters keep leasing halibut

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council voted 9-2 on Oct. 10 to study letting Southeast Alaska charter operators keep leasing halibut from commercial fishermen, which lets their clients take home bigger fish than the rules otherwise allow.

This year, a charter client in Southeast could keep one halibut a day, either 34 inches or shorter or at least 80 inches, and charters couldn't keep halibut on Tuesdays most of the summer, according to state figures.

Charter operators can lift the size limit for a client by leasing pounds of halibut from commercial quota holders, known as guided angler fish. With it, the client can keep a halibut of any size.

Leasing is close to its limit. It shares a cap of 10% of Southeast's commercial halibut quota with a nonprofit set up to buy commercial quota to loosen limits for all charter anglers, funded by a $20 daily stamp charter anglers now buy. As the nonprofit buys more, the room for leasing shrinks.

Charter operators leased about 265,000 pounds in Southeast in 2025, about 43,000 pounds short of the cap, council staff said earlier this month.

The council's motion will look at giving leasing its own cap of 5% or 10% for five or 10 years. It will also look at letting the nonprofit buy up to twice as much quota each year, in Southeast and Southcentral. Nothing changes unless the council acts on that analysis.

Forrest Braden, the nonprofit's director, told the council the current size limit is "completely unappealing" for a sport fishery. "People, we don't sell pounds, we sell opportunity," he said.

Linda Behnken of the Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association said leasing was designed to phase out to limit how much halibut shifts from commercial boats to charters. She said the commercial fleet is largely small, owner-operated boats.

"Commercial fishermen can hold quota, lease it, and never go fishing," she said. "We want that to end and to get people to sell if they don't want to fish."

Both sides pointed to growth in unguided fishing, including rental boats offered by lodges. Southeast's charter and commercial halibut shares were both cut 10% this year after a jump in harvest by recreational anglers fishing without a guide, according to testimony.

Council members amended the motion to say there may be a need to keep leasing available "for a limited period of time."

Separately, the council will recommend 2027 charter halibut rules in December. Options under study could drop Southeast's size limit to 32 inches or less.