Help Stop Halibut Bycatch

UPDATE DECEMBER 6, 2024

The Halibut Defense Alliance (HDA) is pleased to announce that on November 8, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska (Judge Gleason) issued a decision upholding Amendment 123 to the BSAI Groundfish Fishery Management Plan. The ruling, which rejected challenges by the Groundfish Forum, affirms the adoption of “Abundance-Based Management” (ABM) of halibut bycatch by the Amendment 80 (A80) sector. As a result, the abundance-linked bycatch limits in Amendment 123 will remain in effect, benefiting halibut users, fishing families, and halibut-dependent communities throughout the BSAI and beyond.

Halibut fishing in small boats is the economic and cultural lifeblood of many communities across Alaska, and halibut bycatch in other fisheries has negatively affected them. Members of the Alliance have engaged at the North Pacific Fishery Management Council (NPFMC or Council) for many years in support of meaningful regulatory action to better manage and reduce halibut bycatch.

In a thorough and well-reasoned opinion, the federal district court rejected each of A80’s challenges to the new limits — holding that Amendment 123 did not violate the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA); the Administrative Procedure Act (APA); or the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

The court rejected A80’s claim that Amendment 123 violated National Standard 4, which requires any “allocation of fishing privileges” to be “fair and equitable” and “reasonably calculated to promote conservation.” The court likewise rejected A80’s claims that the reduced limits violate National Standard 9 and agreed with the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) that Amendment 123 was “practicable.”

Finally, the court rejected A80’s claim that NMFS violated NEPA by improperly focusing only on the A80 sector.

HDA is made up of community, conservation, and halibut industry entities that came together as intervenors in the lawsuit on the side of NMFS. The State of Alaska, Senator Dan Sullivan, Representative Mary Peltola, and several additional Alaska community, fishing and economic development groups submitted amicus briefs in support of the halibut ABM action.

As we wrap up these efforts, the final bill left to pay for these actions is $40,000. The HDA groups have dug deep to finance this work, and we thank each and every one of you who stood next to us! Please help us get over the finish line!

UPDATE JULY 10, 2024

The Halibut Defense Alliance has finalized its response to the Groundfish Forum’s complaint that the halibut bycatch reduction measures within the new Amendment 123 rule are unfair. Halibut users say otherwise and over the last month, six coastal entities passed resolutions supporting abundance-based management of halibut, with more to follow. We thank the Kodiak Archipelago Rural Leadership Forum and the Cities of Homer, Seldovia, Adak, Cordova, Petersburg and Sitka for voicing their support for reducing wasteful bycatch.

(Cover photo of Jack McHenry, F/V Seymour )

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The Bering Sea is known as the ocean’s cradle for halibut. The Alaska Coastal Current carries eggs and larvae to the area, and the vast majority of juvenile halibut that rear there migrate out as they grow older, traveling as far south as California.

Each year, an average of three-quarters of a million halibut are caught and discarded as bycatch in the Bering Sea by a fleet of factory vessels – bottom trawlers – targeting other flatfish. The majority of the halibut they catch as bycatch are juveniles.

In some recent years, the halibut caught as bycatch in the area exceeded what was caught by halibut fishermen in that same area by nearly double the weight, or eight times as many individual fish. As halibut abundance went rapidly down, conservative management allowed less and less halibut to be harvested by commercial and sports fishermen – while the bycatch users’ limit was unchanged.

This means that for over a decade, as the population of halibut declined and fewer halibut could be caught overall, people who directly relied on halibut for their livelihood increasingly bore the responsibility of conserving the stock - while the seeds of future generations were wasted. A staggering nine out of 17 communities in the region, largely Alaska Native, no longer participate in the halibut fishery upon which they have historically relied.

In 2016, fishermen and communities from Alaska to the Pacific Northwest organized in response to such waste, and spent more than six years successfully advancing a bycatch limit for the fleet of factory ships that was actually linked to the health and abundance of the halibut stock. This effort was approved by regulators in 2021, and the new rule went into effect in January this year.

But the success of this grassroots effort was short-lived: in December of 2023, the fleet of bottom-trawling factory ships filed a federal lawsuit calling the new rule, Amendment 123, unfair – and asked that it be overturned. If this lawsuit succeeds in court, we lose all we have gained in the fight to reduce halibut bycatch. The bycatch limit for bottom trawlers would go back up to a static limit that makes no sense for conservation, and denies fairness and environmental justice.

Our organization, Alaska Marine Conservation Council, has joined a diverse coalition of organizations called the Halibut Defense Alliance to help defend Amendment 123 in court. We have all committed what funds we can spare, and we need your help to see this through to the end. The outcome of this court case is important not only for halibut, but for the ability to enact bycatch reductions for any species.

We ask that you contribute however you can to help protect a fish that is ecologically important, iconic to West Coast fisheries and essential to the continuation of coastal subsistence traditions

and economies. By donating, sharing, and telling the story of your connection to the sea, you can help us prevent bycatch that takes away from future generations. To make a donation by check, please mail to Alaska Marine Conservation Council, PO Box 200103, Anchorage, AK 99520 with memo GoFundMe.

Any funds raised beyond what is spent on attorney fees will be directed to ongoing efforts to reduce bycatch by AMCC and other members of the Halibut Defense Alliance.

For more information on Amendment 123, read our comment on the proposed rule here. To learn more about AMCC and our work to protect healthy oceans and communities, visit our website.

On behalf of halibut and all who appreciate them, thank you.