Anchorage Daily News
March 13, 2007

Halibut greeted at dock with price offer over $5

By Wesley Loy

Three days into the new commercial halibut season, fish began arriving at the docks Monday and fishermen were expecting eye-popping prices for their catches.

High prices at the docks are likely to translate into steep charges in restaurants and grocery stores, which should begin receiving shipments of fresh halibut this week and next.

Rhonda Hubbard, who operates the Seward-based commercial fishing boat Kruzof with her husband Jim, said the buzz on the docks was $5.50 a pound for halibut. That's about as strong a price as fishermen have ever seen.

"It's ridiculous," she said.

In contrast to some of the state's other commercial fisheries such as salmon, which has been mired in a depression in recent years, these are grand times for halibut harvesters.

Halibut fishing off Alaska used to be a frenzied, dangerous affair, with seemingly every boat afloat chasing the big flatfish into any kind of weather. So many boats went to sea that seasons closed in as little as two days. Vessels sank. People died. And tons and tons of halibut were dumped onto the docks all at once.

The advent of individual fishing quotas, or IFQs, in 1995 revolutionized the fishery. Because each captain holds his own percentage share of the annual harvest, he no longer needs to race to catch the fish before the next guy grabs them.

That's yielded safer and longer fisheries. This season will last eight months, until Nov. 15.

In the past, most of the halibut was frozen. Now much of it is flown or trucked fresh to the Lower 48, and that's added great value to the catch.

Halibut has become a menu staple in white-tablecloth restaurants across the country, said Bob Alverson, a Seattle representative for the Alaska halibut fleet.

"We were, for a long time, in the lunch pail market of America," he said. "Now we're kind of going uptown."

Restaurants are hyping opening-day halibut much as they do Copper River salmon, Alverson said.

"They'll all have that 'fresh' sign out. 'Fresh and wild, from Alaska.' Alaska sells," he said.

Most halibut is caught by boats that deploy miles of baited hooks into the water. The boats and the halibut fishermen themselves are called longliners.

According to government figures, average dockside prices for Alaska halibut have tripled since the years prior to IFQs -- from less than $1 per pound in 1992 to $3-plus in 2006.

At $193 million, last year's halibut value ranked third behind only bottom fish -- chiefly pollock and cod -- and salmon among all Alaska commercial fish harvests.

Halibut prices are expected to edge even higher this year because the catch limit for all Pacific halibut is down nearly 7 percent to 65 million pounds. Halibut are caught off Alaska, British Columbia and the West Coast, but Alaska is by far the biggest producer.

The halibut industry is not without worries. Fishermen and processors figure what goes up must come down. So, prices could drop or the now-healthy halibut stocks could dip. Many wonder when consumers will revolt against paying even more per pound for halibut than for king crab. Some also worry that farm-raised halibut someday could become a serious competitive threat, just as foreign farmers have routed Alaska's wild salmon fisheries.

The halibut season opened at noon Saturday.

Dana Besecker, a major Alaska halibut buyer, said the first of his boats to unload its catch was the Determined, which arrived Monday morning in Seward.

By afternoon, Besecker said he still hadn't decided how much to pay for halibut, but he reckoned it would exceed $5 a pound.

"It's a heck of a price. The fishermen should be really happy with that," he said.

The high price is the result of strong consumer desire for the season's first taste of fresh halibut coupled with Lent, the pre-Easter season when many Catholics avoid red meat and eat fish on Fridays, Besecker said.

Once the early demand simmers down, prices will throttle back considerably, he said.

Much larger volumes of halibut are expected to hit the docks today and Wednesday as fishermen flee a forecast of bad weather, including freezing sea spray that can coat boats with dangerous ice.

Daily News reporter Wesley Loy can be reached at wloy@adn.com or 257-4590.