Alaska halibut catch restricted

ANCHORAGE, Alaska – In an ongoing dispute between commercial fishermen and the growing halibut charter business, a federal agency has issued new regulations keeping the current bag limit for guided trips at two fish a day in southeast Alaska.

However, the regulations require that one of those fish can be no more than 32 inches long, a small to medium-size fish producing a 5- to 6-pound fillet.

“We basically are forced to keep one throwback,” Rick Bierman, spokesman for the Juneau Charter Association, said Wednesday.

The intended effect of the new requirement is to reduce the number of pounds of halibut harvested by charter boat fishermen in southeast Alaska while at the same time minimizing any effects on their businesses, federal officials said.