I attended a talk on halibut allocation by Dr. Bruce Leaman from the IPHC on Saturday. Dr. Leaman showed us volumes of statistics, graphs, charts and projections on the halibut situation as he constantly referred to the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and the Guideline Harvest Levels on allocation issues. How can we take Dr. Leaman seriously on the validity of his biological data when he is so naive as to think the North Council is a group of open-minded, unbiased, fair and honest individuals responsible for the fair allocation of the public-owned halibut resource among the different user groups. Even with valid data what good does it do when the North Council is none of the above. The present North Council allocation of 90 percent commercial and 10 percent charter says it all.

R. Koskovich