Area 2A Commercial Pacific Halibut Season Opens June 25
The first three-day commercial directed Pacific halibut fishing season of the year in convention waters off the West Coast begins at 8 a.m. on June 25 and runs through 6 p.m. on June 27.
NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement, along with state and federal fisheries partners, have advised that they will be out on the water and at the docks, conducting patrols throughout the season. Patrol partners include the U.S. Coast Guard, California Department of Fish and Wildlife Law Enforcement, Oregon State Police and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police.
The patrols will focus on ensuring compliance with the rules and regulations governing commercial Pacific halibut fishing. They include but are not limited to proper marking of fishing gear, permitting and vessel documentation, minimum size and possession restrictions, careful release, logbook requirements, early and late fishing and closed areas.
NOAA is reminding participating harvesters that all setline or skate market buoys carried on board or used by any U.S. vessel for Pacific halibut fishing must be marked with either the vessel’s state license number or registration number.
The markings must be in legible characters at least four inches high and one-half inch wide in a contrasting color visible above the waterline.
The International Pacific Halibut Committee stated that as of June 17, a total of 7185,898 pounds of the coastwide fishing limit of 28.9 million pounds of the coastwide fishing limit had been harvested. The reported catch total excludes that Aleutians and Bering Sea harvests.
