Southeast charter halibut limit could shrink to 32 inches or less under 2027 options

A North Pacific Fishery Management Council committee asked the Alaska Department of Fish and Game on Wednesday to study 2027 charter halibut rules that could drop the Southeast charter size limit to 32 inches or less and add Thursday closures in Southcentral starting July 8. The options are for study, not a recommendation.

The Southeast limit has been shrinking. In 2021, charter anglers there could keep one halibut a day 50 inches or shorter, or 72 inches or longer. This year it was 34 inches or shorter, or 80 inches or longer, and Tuesdays were closed from June 18 to Sept. 10, according to the department's figures.

The Southeast charter fleet keeps going over its share anyway. The department's preliminary estimate puts this year's charter removals, which count fish kept plus those estimated to die after release, at 672,859 pounds, 3.5% over a 650,000-pound allocation. Fish that died after release ran 48% above the department's forecast. Charter removals there have topped the allocation every year since 2021, while the allocation itself has dropped from 810,000 pounds that year. Allocations depend on catch limits set by the International Pacific Halibut Commission, and the stock is near its lowest level in four decades, Alaska News reported in August.

For 2027, the committee asked the department to analyze a one-fish daily limit under reverse slots with lower limits from 32 to 50 inches and upper limits from 50 to 80 inches, along with how much closing one day a week would save. A new option would let each angler keep one halibut of any size per year, recorded on the back of their fishing license, with the rest under a slot whose lower limit could go as low as 28 inches, or as low as needed "to reach down to an allocation of 651K pounds," the motion says.

Charter operators pushed back in written comments. Joel Steenstra of Alaska Wide Open Charters wrote that 34 inches is "our rock bottom for the charter fleet" and that operators can't drop to a 31- or 32-inch limit "and expect to survive." He urged more day closures, annual limits and slower growth in the unguided fishery instead. Jeff Wedekind, whose Ketchikan lodge rents boats to self-guided anglers and runs one charter boat, called a 34-inch halibut "ridiculously small" and asked why, if charter anglers can't keep a fish over 34 inches, unguided anglers can keep two.

Both pointed to unguided fishing. The department's final estimate put 2025 Southeast unguided removals at about 1.66 million pounds, 21.6% above its preliminary estimate. Charter removals that year were 750,000 pounds. Another commenter, Keith Ware of Elfin Cove, raised a different concern: that large halibut, carrying millions of eggs, are being overfished by trophy anglers.

Southcentral's charter fleet came in under its share this year, by the department's preliminary estimate, at about 1.4 million pounds against a 1.47 million-pound allocation. Anglers there could keep two fish a day, one of them 27 inches or less, with Wednesdays and some Tuesdays closed. Every 2027 option the committee requested keeps Wednesdays closed and could add Tuesday closures and Thursday closures starting July 8. The options: two fish a day with one under a maximum of 26 to 32 inches; one fish of any size, with a reverse slot starting at 50 and 60 inches also listed; or one fish of any size or two within a 26- to 32-inch limit.

This was the first year of the $20-a-day charter halibut stamp. As of Oct. 19, NOAA Fisheries counted 185,436 stamps reported used, worth about $3.7 million. About 48,000 had not been paid for yet, and 250 of 468 permit holders were short. Holders must buy enough stamps by Dec. 31.

The committee reviews the department's analysis Dec. 2 at the council's Anchorage office and will make its 2027 recommendation then. Written comments are open until 1 pm that day. The full council then recommends charter rules, and the halibut commission takes them up at its January annual meeting, when it also sets the catch limits that determine the 2027 allocations.