2015 Canadian Recreational Fishery Halibut Catch Report January 11, 2016 Report Prepared for the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) Submitted by: Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) 401 Burrard St. Vancouver, British Columbia Canada 0 Table of Contents 1. SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................. 3 1.1. Harvest ............................................................................................................................ 3 Table 1. Estimated Harvest in Pieces and Pounds by Regional Area ............................................................................ 3 Figure 1. Percentage of Halibut pieces harvested in pieces and weight by Regional Area. ........................................ 3 1.2. Biological Samples ........................................................................................................... 3 Table 2. Number of Halibut Biologically Sampled by Area and Source ........................................................................ 4 Figure 3. Halibut sampled for length or weight by area and the samples by source ................................................... 4 1.3. Fishery Logistics ............................................................................................................... 4 2. MANAGEMENT, MONITORING AND POLICY DEVELOPMENT ................................................... 5 2.1. Recreational Fishery Management Plan .......................................................................... 5 2.2. Halibut Experimental Recreational Fishery Program ........................................................ 6 3. RECREATIONAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAMS .............................................................................. 6 3.1. Background...................................................................................................................... 6 3.2. Recreational Fishery Catch Monitoring Initiatives ............................................................ 7 3.3. Haida Gwaii Creel Survey (HGCS) ..................................................................................... 7 Haida Watchmen (Guardians) ...................................................................................................................................... 7 3.4. North Coast Creel Survey (NCCS) ..................................................................................... 7 3.5. Central Coast and Areas 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 ........................................................................... 8 3.6. South Coast Creel Survey ................................................................................................. 8 Table 3. South Coast surveys in inside waters (Johnstone and Georgia and Juan de Fuca Straits) .............................. 9 Table 4. South Coast surveys in outside waters (West Coast of Vancouver Island) ...................................................... 9 3.7. Biological Sampling ......................................................................................................... 10 4. DATA ...................................................................................................................................... 11 Table 5. Summary of the 2015 Recreational Halibut Catch Estimate by Pacific Fishery Management Area (PFMA) 11 Table 6. Preliminary Recreational Halibut Monthly Catch Estimates (net wt. lbs) for 2013, 2014 and 2015 ............ 12 Table 7. Estimated Halibut Catch in Pieces.................................................................................................................. 13 1 Table 8. Estimated Catch in Net Weight (lbs) .............................................................................................................. 14 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................... 15 2 1. SUMMARY This report summarizes the 2015 harvest and biological data from the Canadian recreational Halibut fishery in the tidal waters of British Columbia (BC). The recreational total allowable catch for 2015 was 1,063,550 pounds1 and the estimated harvest is 984,665 pounds (78,885 pound underage). The estimated harvest by pieces is 62,806. The 2015 season opened on February 1 and closed on December 31. Monitoring occurred during peak months and peak areas of the fishery to collect catch, effort and biological data. A variety of tools are used including logbooks (paper and electronic), lodge manifests and recreational creel monitoring programs. Final estimates are anticipated to be available by the spring of 2016. Estimated harvest by piece count and net weight by regional areas are noted below. 1.1. Harvest Table 1. Estimated Harvest in Pieces and Pounds by Regional Area Area Pieces Pounds North Coast 32,496 473,388 Central Coast 3,354 36,172 South Coast 26,956 475,105 Totals 62,806 984,665 Figure 1. Percentage of Halibut harvested by piece and weight by Regional Area. 1.2. Biological Samples 1 Pounds in this document refer to net weight (head off, dressed) pounds. See Biological Sampling section for the equations used to convert round weight (head on, undressed) and fork length to net weight. 3 A coast wide total of 17,925 halibut were biologically sampled for either length or weight in 2015, representing 27% of the estimated harvest. The numbers of biological samples collected by regional areas and by source are noted below. Table 2. Number of Halibut Biologically Sampled by Regional Area and Source Area Source Pieces Creel 2,884 North Coast Logbook 10,634 Central Coast Logbook 3,242 Creel 1,165 South Coast Logbook 2,715 Creel 4,049 Coastwide Logbook 16,591 Grand Total 17,925 Figure 2. Halibut sampled for length or weight by area and samples by source. 1.3. Fishery Logistics Catch monitoring of the recreational fishery in BC is extremely challenging given the large geographic areas (numerous remote areas), the diversity of fishing opportunities and the diversity of participants. In 2015, the 2015‐16 Tidal Waters Sport Fishing Licence included revised Conditions of Licence that makes catch reporting mandatory: The licence holder shall provide accurate information regarding their catch and fishing activities upon request of a Creel Surveyor or an on‐line surveyor, authorities designated under s.61(5) of the Fisheries Act. Conditions of Licence also included regulations related to possession limits, size limits and an annual limit. DFO continues to work with the BC Sport Fishing Advisory Board to develop catch monitoring standards for fishery management requirements. It is important to develop an agreed‐upon standard for all recreational fishery data collection and handling that is fair to all jurisdictions (reasonable coverage levels and cost effective) for both domestic and IPHC use. This is consistent with Canada's Catch Limit Principles (put forward at the 4 2011 Annual IPHC Meeting) whereby principle 3 states: All removals from both directed and non‐ directed fisheries must be monitored at a defined minimum standard of accuracy. In addition, this was a request put forward by conference board four years ago. In response to the IPHC’s 2012 request for data collection programs on recreational discards, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has reviewed its existing recreational halibut catch and release information and examined options for the estimation of release mortalities. DFO does obtain some information from anglers on the number of halibut releases through creel surveys, logbooks and internet surveys. However, the information is incomplete (some times of year and some areas of the coast are not covered) and is based solely on fisher‐dependent reports. In BC, anglers are not currently required to record size or condition of released fish; such a practice can present challenges in terms of angler safety, application of correct measurement techniques, logistics of reporting the data, and inaccuracies due to various types of bias, such as recall, rounding, and prestige bias. There are also several reasons released halibut may be a different average size compared to the average size of retained fish, such as size limits and angler preferences. Given these various limitations of the information available, DFO does not currently use recreational release data for the purposes of recreational halibut management or allocation decisions. DFO continues to work with the recreational fishery sector in BC to improve recreational fishery monitoring and catch reporting. While the current focus remains on strengthening data collection and monitoring for retained catch in recreational fisheries, new reporting tools such as the internet recreational effort and catch (iREC) survey of recreational harvesters include questions about anglers’ releases. As the survey moves from the testing phase to implementation, DFO will be exploring how the data gathered on releases may be used to inform management. 2. MANAGEMENT, MONITORING and POLICY DEVELOPMENT 2.1. 2015 Recreational Fishery Management Plan The current domestic sharing arrangement between commercial and recreational fisheries is 85% of the resource allocated to the commercial sector and 15% to the recreational sector.” The 15% recreational share equates to a total allowable catch of 1,063,550 pounds. The recreational halibut fishery opened on February 1 under the same licence conditions as 2014. The management measures included: A maximum length of 133 cm (approx. 52 inches)