This time of year I split my days between my computer and the harbor, trying not to bring too much of the bait smell back to the office with me. Herring oil or not, it's been my great fortune to find work in my hometown that allows me to always be talking about, writing about or looking for fish.

I'll be on the grounds this time next week, hauling in Pacific halibut, finding rhythm again for another season on the water.

I'll also be considering what's coming up after I return to homeport — the June convening of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council in Sitka. There the Council will take final action on the proposed reduction of halibut bycatch caps in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands, or BSAI, region.

This decision point comes after a decade of steady stock decline, during which time the directed halibut fishery quota in the BSAI has dropped by 63 percent. Halibut fishermen in the hardest hit region — the Central Bering Sea — are facing closure if meaningful change doesn't come out of the June meeting. Their crisis point has arrived.

Read the full story at Alaska Journal of Commerce>>

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