A preliminary injunction was granted on June 20 by Judge Rosemary Collyer on a lawsuit filed by 11 charter halibut fishermen on June 2, 2008 against Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez. The preliminary injunction will remain until Judge Collyer rules on the merits of the case, most likely after the end of the summer fishing season. The ruling permits recreational anglers, who fish from charter boats in Southeast Alaska, to fish under last year's bag limits: one halibut of any size and one halibut 32 inches or less per day.

"We are thrilled with the judge's decision," said lead plaintiff Scott Van Valin, owner of El Capitan Lodge and co-founder of the Charter Halibut Task Force. "An independent judge has recognized the considerable harm this one-fish rule would have imposed on charter operators and the economy of Southeast Alaska and agrees that the Secretary may not have followed the rules. We look forward to a favorable ruling on the merits of the case as well."

The suit alleges that the Secretary failed to comply with the fair and equitable allocation requirements of the Northern Pacific Halibut Act and also violated the Administrative Procedures Act. Court documents can be reviewed at http://www.charterhalibut.org/id6.html.

This lawsuit is part of an ongoing allocation battle between the commercial fishing industry and charter operators over the number of halibut charter anglers are allowed to harvest. Commercial interests on the Council proposed that recreational anglers be limited to one halibut per day rather than the historical two-halibut limit and reallocating the second fish to the commercial halibut fishermen. In contrast, a two-fish limit for charter anglers in Southeast Alaska would mean no change in the 6.21 million-pound commercial quota for 2008 and would result in a reduction in the commercial quota in Area 2C for 2009 by approximately 250,000 pounds.

Charter fishing accounted for only 6.2 percent of the total halibut caught off the coast of Alaska over the last 10 years. By comparison, that is over 12 times less than the 75.8 percent that the commercial halibut fleet harvests, and less than half the 14.6 percent allocated for bycatch (halibut caught incidentally by commercial fisheries targeting other species of fish).

The Pacific halibut charter industry is limited to fishing along the coast of Southeast and Southcentral Alaska, because those areas have the infrastructure such as hotels, airports, restaurants necessary to support tourism and charter fishing.

"The Alaska charter fleet is not asking for more fish to be harvested beyond what is healthy for the resource. But if Alaska wants to maintain the current tourism dollars that come from charter fishing, it will require allocating enough halibut harvest to allow anglers to try for two-fish per day," said Ken Dole, Co-founder of the Charter Halibut Task Force and managing partner of Waterfall Resort. "You aren't going to get the same number of anglers coming to Southeast Alaska when they could fish for two fish in Southcentral Alaska or Canada for the same price."

Secretary Gutierrez's support for the one halibut daily limit in Southeast Alaska goes against his ruling only a year ago. In June 2007, the Secretary vetoed a proposed one fish rule for Southeast Alaska because "a reduced bag limit would impose a considerable economic burden on the charter sector that could be mitigated by maintaining the traditional two-fish bag limit," according to 72 Fed. Reg. 30721 (2007), and that was only for six weeks of the season.

RFA supports the Charter Halibut Task Force and has worked with the charter community in Alaska on various issues over the past 15 years.