Halibut Fishery Facing Collapse in Alaska?

The Pacific halibut fishing industry turned 120 years old in 2008. And it may not have too many years left. Alaskans are bracing for further reductions in catch limits as fishing stocks tumble. What has happened to North America’s once powerful fishing industries?

We “were pretty well staggered,” says Linda Behnken, executive director of the Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association in Sitka. “We were braced for 10 to 15 percent reduction, [but] everyone will lose another 28 percent of their quota.”

Some fishing areas off the coast of Alaska will be hit harder than others. On average, the International Pacific Halibut Commission has recommended that catch limits be cut 10 percent in 2009. This follows a 9 percent reduction this year. A 19 percent reduction in two years is going to be tough for many within the fishing industry to swallow.

Making matters worse, the Halibut Commission indicates it is possible that there may be more cuts again in 2010.

The reduced catch allowances are sure to have an impact. Jobs will be lost. People who are making payments on their boats and equipment will be in trouble. And those who rely on loans to finance excursions will have difficulty finding lenders.

On any given day, there are thousands of fishermen on the waters plying their trade—over 20,000 during peak season each summer. Add in the additional thousands of jobs in seafood-related industries such as processing and transportation, management and other support services, and the number quickly balloons. Seafood accounted for fully half of Alaska’s total exports in 2006 and 2007, according to Anchorage Daily News.

But the state of the fisheries shows evidence of decline. Fish-harvesting jobs have fallen by 17 percent since 2000. Alaska’s largest crab fisheries are also dwindling—down 40 percent from 2002 in the Bering Sea.

But the halibut and crab industries in Alaska are not the only fisheries in trouble.

Back on May 1, U.S. federal authorities declared the U.S. West Coast ocean salmon fishery a failure. According to the National Post, the closure of both the commercial and recreational Chinook salmon fishery was the first such ban in 160 years (May 3).

In the United Kingdom, fisheries may be in a similar state. The Cooperative and the Marine Conservation Society (mcs) are pushing for almost one third of UK seas to be turned into “no take” zones by 2020 to protect endangered habitats. The Cooperative claims that just 8 out of 47 fishing stocks found around the British Isles are in a healthy state. Twenty-two species, such as the common skate and Atlantic halibut, are now listed as critically endangered, it reports. “We have dithered while Rome burns,” says Dr. Jean-luc Solandt, a biodiversity policy officer for mcs. Dr. Solandt says the bill before Parliament doesn’t go far enough to address the ecological problems. He called it window dressing that does little in terms of recovery and sustainability.

Opponents of the campaign’s recommendations say the impact on fishing communities would be “mind-blowing” and “horrific.” They are challenging the scientific basis of the recommendations.

If the United Kingdom didn’t have a fisheries problem, however, it would be the exception to the rule. “From giant blue marlin to mighty bluefin tuna, and from tropical groupers to Antarctic cod, industrial fishing has scoured the global ocean. There is no blue frontier left,” wrote Ransom Myers, a leading fisheries biologist based at Dalhousie University in Canada. “Since 1950, with the onset of industrialized fisheries, we have rapidly reduced the resource base to less than 10 percent—not just for some stocks, but for entire communities of these large fish species from the tropics to the poles.”

Just a few years ago, scientists warned that large predatory fish species had been depleted by as much as 99 percent over the past century.

The Earth’s troubled oceans are crying out. To better understand the message they are sending, read “Where Have All the Fish Gone?”