IPHC Chartering Longliners for Setline Survey

The International Pacific Halibut Commission is chartering longline vessels to conduct its Fishery-Independent Setline Survey for 2020, to gather growth, biomass, sexual maturity and other data for use in the Pacific halibut stock assessment.

Due to impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the IPHC has tentatively agreed to a reduced setline survey this year, with no contracts to be awarded for regulatory areas 2A, 4A, 4B and ACDE/closed area.
Charter regions also removed for this survey include regulatory area 2B: Vancouver and regulatory area 3B, Shumagin and Sanak.

The current plan for 2020 includes coverage of 17 charter regions within the IPHC convention area with a grid of stations from the coast of British Columbia to the Gulf of Alaska.

A final decision on whether the 2020 FISS will be feasible during the pandemic is to be made in late May.