NOAA Sets West Coast Halibut Season Opening June 23 With 261,211-Pound Cap

NOAA Fisheries has set the 2026 commercial Pacific halibut season for the U.S. West Coast — and for all the regulatory machinery behind it, the fishery is a sliver of a resource that Alaska dominates.

The rule, published June 16, governs Area 2A, the waters off Washington, Oregon, and California and the southernmost slice of the Pacific halibut range. Its entire non-tribal directed commercial allocation is 261,211 pounds — less than one percent of the roughly 29.3-million-pound coastwide mortality limit the International Pacific Halibut Commission set for 2026. The bulk of that coastwide total belongs to Alaska. The IPHC — the U.S.–Canada body that manages the stock — apportions the catch across regulatory areas running from California up through British Columbia, Southeast Alaska, and the Central and Western Gulf of Alaska to the Bering Sea, with Alaska's areas accounting for the lion's share of the harvest.

Within that small Area 2A pie, the season comes in narrow windows: June 23–25 and July 7–9, with a third opening July 21 only if quota remains. Vessel catch limits scale by boat length, from 2,000 pounds for vessels 35 feet and under to 5,000 pounds for those 56 feet and over.

Permit holders receive inseason openings and closures by direct email and through the Federal Register, and standard logbook and closed-area rules apply — including non-trawl Rockfish Conservation Areas, depth-based zones off-limits to certain gear.