Anchorage Daily News
August 10, 2005

Charter Quota Plan Treading Water

IFQS: Fishery council that recommended catch limits is asked to confirm position.

By Wesley Loy

A stalled plan to establish individual catch limits for halibut charter boats might be headed back to the drawing board -- or at least a fresh round of hot debate.

Bill Hogarth, a top fisheries regulator with the U.S. Department of Commerce in Washington, D.C., has asked the North Pacific Fishery Management Council to "confirm its support" for the charter boat plan. The council, made up of government, industry and other representatives from Alaska, Washington and Oregon, makes recommendations to the Commerce Department on catch limits and other matters.

The council recommended individual fishing quotas, or IFQs, in 2001, as a means of controlling halibut catches by Alaska's growing charter fleet. The vote culminated a debate that spanned eight years and drew more than 8,000 public comments on how to manage the charter fishery, according to council staffers.

But the council's will never was carried out.

Instead, the IFQ plan has languished for more than four years inside the Commerce Department, which hasn't approved the plan or published the regulations necessary to assign the individual quotas. Hogarth's letter cites "the passage of time" as one reason for further council action, but it doesn't explain the delay.

In the meantime, a new wave of opposition to the IFQ plan has erupted on the docks in Homer and other ports.

Commercial fishermen, who regard the charter boats as competitors for a limited supply of halibut, saw IFQs as a way to control the charter fleet's growth as well as provide a means for charter operators to expand. The individual quotas, representing rights to catch a certain quantity of halibut, could be bought and sold on an open market.

Commercial fishermen already have individual quotas, and they catch most of the halibut off Alaska. Regulators shave down the commercial quota as the charter boat catch increases.

Many charter boat captains also supported IFQs in 2001.

But opposing forces say IFQs could hurt many small-business people in Alaska ports and could lead to higher rates for tourists and Alaska residents looking for a day of fishing in Southcentral or Southeast waters.

Greg Sutter, owner of Captain Greg's Charters in Homer, said Tuesday that he welcomed Hogarth's letter.

Sutter said he opposes the IFQ plan even though he qualifies to receive, for free, catch rights that he estimates would otherwise cost him $300,000. He said he charges $190 per person for a day of fishing, but rates would rise because many operators would have to buy quota.

"It's bad medicine for the state of Alaska. It's bad medicine for the sportfishery," Sutter said from aboard his boat, the Tomahawk, as it headed back to port Tuesday afternoon with a limit of halibut.

Other players expressed frustration that the charter plan remains stuck in port, facing new debate this fall.

Bob Alverson, manager of the Fishing Vessel Owners' Association, a Seattle-based group of top commercial halibut fishermen, said much council work in 2001 has gone to waste.

He said federal bureaucrats have dragged their feet on the charter plan, "sitting on it like an ostrich egg." He also said officials in the Alaska Department of Fish and Game contributed to the delay by dropping a requirement that charter boat captains record their daily halibut catches in their logbooks.

The logbook data was important for establishing how many halibut each charter captain had caught in past years and how much quota each would receive.

Fish and Game officials told charter captains in 2002 they had reviewed logbook entries and found them to be inaccurate. The state has other methods for estimating the halibut sport catch, including angler surveys.

Bob Ward, a Homer charter captain who supports the IFQ plan, said many of the opponents are new charter operators who have jumped into the business in recent years, knowing they might not qualify for free quotas. He said many charter captains still support the plan but prefer not to be very vocal about it.

"I've got guys that love me in the boat harbor and guys who won't talk to me," he said. "It's nasty some days. I've been threatened."

Stephanie Madsen, who chairs the North Pacific Council, said Hogarth's letter likely means a whole new airing of the charter boat issue at the council's Oct. 3 meeting in Anchorage. She noted that five of the council's 11 voting members have changed since the 2001 decision.

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