The IPHC said in a press statement that the project is a pilot program in response to requests from fishermen in British Columbia and the IPHC research advisory board.
The impetus for the special project came from fishermen concerned about rockfish bycatch and possible restrictions placed on halibut fishermen due to rockfish bycatch, according to IPHC commissioner Bruce Leaman.
“We’re trying to look at whether or not pots can be used in any form to restrict the selectivity either to halibut or to allow rockfish to escape, or to avoid shark encounters or avoid whale encounters and so forth,” Leaman said. “It’s something that our research advisory board asked us to look at about three years ago, and we haven’t been able to do it up until about now.”
IPHC research biologist Steve Kaimmer is heading up the project and explained how it will be done.
“We have a boat that we’re chartering to go off into some Canadian waters for a couple of weeks,” Kaimmer said. “We’re going to be deploying some of the Korean-style black cod pots, the pot is on one end of a long arm, and the other end has a Ditson scanning sonar which gives you an image, not a video image, but it’s as close as you can come with natural light.”
Kaimmer said that the image will allow researchers to observe the behavior of halibut and rockfish around the gear. That will allow them to make modifications to the pots to see if they can either enhance the halibut catch or limit the rockfish catch.
The research crew will start with a sock-style tunnel and make modifications, including using a rigid tunnel, based on what happens.
“We’re going to see, among other things, what would happen with a rigid tunnel,” Kaimmer said, “although I’ve had people swear to me that rockfish can crawl into pretty small spots, so it may be that we can’t keep the rockfish from getting into the pots. We’re also going to look at escape rings in different sizes and placements.”
Being able to watch the behavior of the fish while the pot is on the bottom is new for the researchers.
“What do the halibut do in a pot?” Kaimmer wondered. “On hook gear, they fight as long as they can. Do they just lie down and wait in a pot? Do they stay on the bottom, or are they swimming around trying to get out the whole time? It will be interesting to see what happens.”
How long to leave the pot on the bottom and how much bait to put in it also are variables for the study.
“We’re going to do short soaks at least initially, but we might do some longer soaks later on,” Kaimmer noted. “If there’s too much bait, nobody wants to leave. We’re going to try some where we just have loose bait so that the bait will be consumed early, and fish that are in the pot then have no reason to want to stay in, so they might be looking for ways out. If we have a bait jar or sock stuffed with bait, they may be happy to stay next to the plume.”
Another reason to see if pots will work for catching halibut is to eliminate predation by whales, sharks and sea lions, a growing problem for the longline industry.
“This question also has application out on the (Aleutian) chain where there’s so much mammal predation, although perhaps not with the same pot, although the concept should apply,” Kaimmer said.
Commissioner Leaman said that the project faces some controversy, but that given the alternatives, it’s worth looking at.
“It’s a very touchy issue because it automatically raises a whole bunch of issues about gear, big boat-small boat and all kinds of things like that,” Leaman said. “But given the constraints that are faced by fishermen in some areas, Southeast in particular is one area, if you look at places where there’s a lot of whale and shark encounters like Western Gulf and the Bering Sea, guys are interested in finding out if there’s any possibility of using alternate gears for halibut.”
Kaimmer explained what happens next. “We’re going to collect the observations, process it through, and we’ll present our findings in our end-of-the-year documents,” he said. “Basically we’re responding to our research advisory group and our commissioners and the fishermen saying ‘we’d like to take a look at this.’ And so we’re taking a look and we’ll tell them what we find. Whether it goes anywhere else, I couldn’t tell you.”
Kaimmer also pointed out that it’s just in the infant stages, to see if catching halibuts with pots is even possible. “This is just sort of a feasibility study, a pilot,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that we’re going to let people use fish pots to catch halibut next year, all it means is that we want to see if it’s feasible.”
However, the research is tantalizing all by itself.
“It’s a voyage of discovery,” Kaimmer said.
The Sitka Sound roe herring season came and went right on schedule, with the first opening taking place March 24 and the cleanup happening March 29. Most of the 10,415 tons in quota was taken over three openings totaling 4 hours and 5 minutes, followed by a three-hour cooperative cleanup for the final 950 tons.
Roe content was good, with processors reporting roe recovery of around 10 percent for all openings. Prices have been climbing for the past several years, from $305 per ton in 2002 to $475 in 2005. Price information for this season was not available.
Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978. She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist. She can be reached at cristy-fry@excite.com.
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