Why You Shouldn’t Buy Commercial Halibut

This website is dedicated to educating the consumer as to why it is important to not buy commercially caught halibut! People need to stand for what is right by not purchasing halibut at stores, restaurants, the internet, or anywhere else.

By purchasing halibut you are supporting greed, big money politics, the squashing of small business and the theft of individual rights of Americans.

By refusing such purchases you are standing against privatization of natural resources and standing behind sport fishermen dedicated to the conservation of natural resources.

The commercially driven politics of the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council (NPFMC) are working hard to ruin sport fishing opportunities for Halibut in Alaska and Canada. The commercial killing of halibut adds up to 80% of the entire catch. Sport fishing adds up to a meager 8%. Yet the NPFMC has spent the last 16 years trying to divide halibut sport fishermen into small groups and conquer them one by one.

Some of the actions the NPFMC are trying to take against sport fishermen:

• Annual limits of just 6 fish or less per angler
• One fish per day limits
• Requiring a lease from commercial fishermen in order to catch them on a rod and reel
• Slot limits

The NPFMC declares there is no conservation issue and they think it is fair and equitable for sport fishermen to take less than 8% of the overall catch. Meanwhile they have privatized a public resource into individual fishing quotas and raised their quota by up to 80%.

The Council has left sport fishermen and guides with no alternative but to fight back by educating the public.

Please help by refusing to buy commercially caught halibut. Please stop greed and big money political payoffs. Please stand behind small businesses and their important role in the coastal Alaskan and Canadian communities.

DON’T BUY HALIBUT

Did you know?

• 20% of the overall catch of halibut is thrown over the side by draggers targeting Pollock? That is right, over 16 million pounds of quality fish considered collateral damage while targeting another species. This figure is more than twice the amount caught by the sport fishermen the NPFMC is seeking to limit!
• Commercial fishermen were issued quota based on their prior catches. That quota is transferable. It has made many of them millionaires. The price of quota they received for free now sells in excess of $20 a pound. Many of them own tens of thousands if not hundereds of thousands of pounds.
• Commercial fishermen feel they own the fish. They have total disregard for sport fishing
  interests and would like to see sport fishing be shut down completely.
• Most commercial halibut isn’t even processed in the United States. It is trucked over the road into Canada for processing. All those millions of pounds of halibut are providing foreign jobs instead of jobs in the US.
• $22/lb Halibut sold in the market as “Fresh” can be over 20 days old!

Please keep checking back as this website will grow to address the following issues:

• Who are the big money players? We will name the council members and their positions on this issue. We will name people within the State of Alaska who have played a role in taking away sport fishing opportunities. We will name the big companies who have driven these politics.
• What damage is being done to local areas by commercial fishing?
• Why is halibut taken out of the US for processing?
• What does Fair and Equitable mean? Why are most other fisheries in the US broken up 50-50 between commercial and sport? In Alaska commercial interests dominate halibut by 80% to the sport fishermen’s 8%.
• The economic benefit of sport caught halibut vs. commercial or by-catch.
• The damage commercial fishing does to the ocean.

REMEMBER HISTORY:

Commercial Fisheries devastate resources while sport fishermen work hard to restore them and guarantee the future.

Please help guarantee future stocks and sport fishing opportunities by not buying Halibut. You will be helping to right a horrible wrong.

www.DontBuyHalibut.com

T-Shirts will be available by the thousands over the next year. Halibut Charter Skippers have placed large orders of these shirts in order to provide them free to their clients. Please pass the word and proudly wear your shirt.

Please Note: Because this is an issue of allocation it is apparent there are enough fish to go around. The goal of sport fishermen is to receive a fair and equitable portion. This war will be waged until the NPFMC finds that balance.