Unalaska, AK – This year's International Pacific Halibut Commission stock survey shows that the halibut stock in the Aleutians is improving and the preliminary commercial catch recommendations for 2010 are increased. The commission's staff recommends increasing the overall halibut catch limit for the Aleutians, called Area 4, from 4.42 million pounds to 4.69 million. That's a significant difference from the overall catch for Alaska, British Columbia, and the Pacific Northwest, which is being cut by 10 percent from this year's catch.

"The areas are coming down off some historic highs of catches that were largely fueled by strong year classes 1987 and 1988. So we are coming down off that," explained IPHC executive director Bruce Leaman. "But the positive signs for Area 4 are actually quite good. We've seen an increase in both our survey and commercial catch rates, which we use to index the populations as part of the data that goes into the stock assessment."

He said part of the improvement in the Aleutians is due to a change in management. A few years ago the commission reduced the harvest rates from 20 to 15 percent. He said that fish from the 1999-2000 year class are also entering the stock, though they are growing very slowly.

Halibut stocks in Southeast Alaska are not doing as well. Their catch limits might drop by 29 percent next year. Leaman said part of the management problem came from a lack of knowledge of how much halibut move around.

"We used to think that once fish had recruited into the stock, which is around age eight, that they didn't move very much aside from seasonal migrations for spawning, but basically they were pretty much in the areas they were recruited to. But that doesn't appear to be the case. They are in fact moving more than we thought they were and we had to change how we assess the stock. And what that meant was we were probably exploiting the eastern side of the stock at a heavier rate than was sustainable."

Leaman said the tagging research done over the past few years found that halibut from the Aleutians sometimes go to Southeast Alaska or beyond. "What it means is we have probably more connectivity between the western areas and the eastern areas than we thought we had before. So that means that we need to be cognizant of what's going on in the whole stock. And it does affect the way we set limits for all areas because there's a lot more connectivity than we thought there was."

The International Pacific Halibut Commission will set the catch limits at their annual meeting in January in Seattle.