Tell ya what..... you explain to me how releasing a fish in the hopes of reestablishing a population is a worse idea than killing and eating it, and I'll admit to being naive on the subject.
FYI-there's
always been a population of Halibut that over winter in Howe Sound, guys fishing winter Springs near bottom have been catching them for decades but not every one makes the paper.
In addition there's a stock of Halibut in Georgia Strait that predates on Hake, these fish are deep and rarely come up.
However we are seeing some movement and numbers of fish taken off ECVI have grown over the past 5 years-are you following this?
So if populations are expanding/moving it stands to reason that sooner or later some would end up on this side right in front of the Big Smoke.
As to releasing them-it's legal to take two (2) a day in area 29 if there was a concern then FOC would change the limit to zero so no tears would be shed online for little fishies.
Honest to god have any of you ever seen a Halibut longliner?
Seen how many fish they take in one set?
You guys have to get out of the office/schoolroom/pink collar ghetto and onto the water on the other side of Vancouver Island/the North Coast or QCI to understand how many fish there are-
the bottom is paved with Halibut in some places the stock is vast-and as we see-growing.
BTW-I don't post reports anymore because of crying like this-but just this once I'll tell you-my freezer is
stuffed with vaccuum packed Halibut-can't say where they came from though except to say the water was rough/cold and salty.