NOAA closes West Coast halibut fishery after fleet takes 96% of quota

The West Coast's non-Tribal directed commercial Pacific halibut fishery, the non-treaty commercial fleet, closed for the year as of Monday, with no further openings scheduled, after the fleet harvested an estimated 96 percent of its 261,211-pound (118 metric ton) allocation. NOAA Fisheries said in its closure bulletin, which it has not yet posted online, that it had too little quota left for another opening without risking an overrun. The fishery covers waters south of Point Chehalis, Washington, in International Pacific Halibut Commission Area 2A, off Washington, Oregon, and California.

Landings ran 65,129 pounds June 23 to 25, 50,633 July 7 to 9, 44,127 July 21 to 23, 50,298 August 18 to 20, 13,574 September 1 to 3, and 26,345 September 15 to 17. NOAA estimated 223,761 pounds, or 86 percent, harvested by September 10, leaving 37,450 before the sixth and final period opened. Each window ran 58 hours. The first two scaled vessel limits by boat length, from 2,000 pounds for boats 35 feet and under to 5,000 pounds for boats 56 feet and longer; the other four set a flat 5,000 pounds for every vessel.

The fleet took about a quarter of the quota in the June opener, and the sixth period was added after catch rates fell sharply. Pacific halibut spawning biomass, the weight of breeding-age fish, sits near its lowest level since the 1970s, federal regulators say, at 38 percent of its unfished state. Alaska absorbed the deepest 2025 catch cuts.

Area 2A draws on the same coastwide stock that Alaska's commercial, charter, and subsistence users fish. That allocation is set through the halibut commission and the Pacific Fishery Management Council under the Northern Pacific Halibut Act of 1982. Nothing in the closure says Alaska's access changes; it ends the West Coast fishery for the year.

Questions go to the West Coast Region Pacific halibut team at [email protected]. Logbooks are due to the IPHC within 30 days of the season's close.