Glacier Fish, SeaShare present halibut donation permit to council

Glacier Fish Company and SeaShare on Thursday presented the North Pacific Fishery Management Council with a test that would let one Bering Sea trawler give away halibut it is now required to throw back into the sea, even when the fish are already dead.

Under the proposed federal permit, the catcher-processor Northern Glacier could donate up to 5,000 pounds of that halibut while fishing for yellowfin sole. SeaShare would distribute it, primarily to Western Alaska communities, said Hannah Lindhoff, SeaShare's executive director.

SeaShare's more than 400,000 pounds of Alaska donations last year included almost no halibut "because halibut is expensive," Lindhoff said.

Today only trawl catcher vessels delivering to shore or to stationary floating processors can donate halibut, rules that Glenn Merrill of Glacier Fish said have stood about 30 years. Boats like the Northern Glacier, which process their catch at sea, must discard it.

A council member asked how the test would avoid reducing the number of halibut returned to the sea alive. Merrill said it would cover only food-grade halibut left over after crews sort the catch on deck, returning larger, livelier halibut to the water first, and after a federal observer takes samples. Those leftover fish have "basically zero viability," he said. Asked by a council member to confirm the halibut would go to food banks, he said, "It is not a commercial product."

"This EFP does not increase bycatch limits," Merrill said. He called 5,000 pounds a small portion of the halibut the vessel can't return alive and said measuring that is part of the test. The permit would not exempt the vessel from existing bycatch limits or deck sorting requirements.

The National Marine Fisheries Service alone decides whether to grant the permit, which would run from May 1, 2027, through Dec. 31, 2028. Public comment closes Oct. 16. The Alaska Fisheries Science Center found the test's scientific design valid and recommended handling donated halibut away from the observer station, and the applicants would have to file a final report on what worked and what didn't.

The International Pacific Halibut Commission sent feedback this week but has no role in the decision, said Jon Kurland, the agency's Alaska regional administrator. The commission's own rules touch parts of the plan, and U.S. delegates expect to propose changes. Asked whether a commission rejection would block the permit, Kurland said he did not think so, "but we'll have to see where that lands."