The Halibut industry in disarray.

The international commission which manages Halibut from the lower 48 to the Bering Sea passed down its verdict on the catch limits for 2011 this week.  They aren't very pretty.  2A is up 12% - 2B is up 2% - 2C is lowered a whopping 47% - 3A is lowered 28% - 3B is lowered 24% - 4A,B,C,D all up a little bit.  The reason for the big downward adjustments in several area catch limits, we are led to believe, is smaller fish.  The scientists would have us believe that fish which used to be 100 lbs. at 12 to 15 years of age are now only 35 lbs.  They cite competition for food by Arrow tooth flounder as the culprit.  I don't know about you, but I doubt very much a 2 lb. flounder can out muscle a 35 lb. Halibut or almost any sized Halibut for that matter.  Where did all the Arrow Tooth, that are competing with the Halibut for food, come from? Are there really that many flounder in area 2C? Of course not, but they do have a problem or two. So do areas 3A & 3B.   There are several 800 lb. gorillas in the room here which have to be dealt with, once and for all, or Halibut will continue to be unmanageable.  The charter fleet must be brought into Federal and State compliance and there has to be 100% observer coverage in the trawl fleet.
To start with, you have to designate what sport and charter really are.  If it's sport, it's catch and release.  If the fish are harvested it's a commercial fishing enterprise and should be managed according to the State and Federal laws, already in place, for these "fully utilized" species of fish.  Only when you can account for every lb. of fish removed from the ocean, can you have a good enough data-set to manage a resource from.