Washington, D.C. June 10, 2008 Guided recreational anglers in Southeast Alaska won a reprieve here today from the one halibut daily bag limit imposed June 1 by the National Marine Fisheries Service. Judge Rosemary Collyer granted a temporary restraining order, or TRO, against the rule at the request of eleven Southeast charter operators who filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
On Friday June 20th the TRO was converted into a preliminary injunction that will remain in effect until the judge rules on the merits of the case, likely after the end of the summer fishing season.
The judge's ruling means that recreational anglers fishing from charter boats in Southeast Alaska will now be able to fish under last year's bag limits.
Charter fishermen along the coast of Southeast Alaska filed a lawsuit June 2 against Secretary of Commerce Carlos M. Gutierrez over a rule that changed the daily bag limit for anglers fishing from charter boats in Southeast Alaska from two halibut per day to one halibut per day. 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.
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).