The West Coast's halibut fleet needed six openings to near its small quota

The West Coast's commercial halibut fishery is closed for the year after the fleet struggled to catch even a small quota.

Boats fishing off Washington, Oregon and California took an estimated 96 percent of their 261,211-pound allocation before NOAA Fisheries shut the season Monday, saying too little remained for another opening without risking an overrun. No more openings are scheduled.

Getting there took six openings. The fleet caught about a quarter of its quota in the first, in June. After that, catch rates fell off sharply, and NOAA added a sixth period in September to give boats a chance to finish.

That struggle tracks with the health of the stock. Pacific halibut spawning biomass — the weight of breeding-age fish — sits near its lowest level since the 1970s, at 38 percent of what it would be unfished, according to federal regulators.

It's the same coastwide stock that Alaska's commercial, charter and subsistence fishermen depend on, and Alaska absorbed the deepest catch cuts in 2025. The West Coast closure doesn't change Alaska's access; it ends that fleet's season for the year.