The North Pacific Fishery Management Council and Advisory Panel hold their last meeting of the year Dec. 4-11 at the Anchorage Hilton Hotel.

A total of 52 hours will be spent in discussion. Fourteen hours have been set aside to discuss charter halibut management and eight hours for Gulf of Alaska (GOA) groundfish rationalization. Eight hours will be spent on groundfish management.

GOA groundfish rationalization has not been on the agenda since April.

Council chair Stephanie Madsen said she does not anticipate the council taking any surprising action regarding GOA groundfish rationalization.

The council will consider sector splits as a preliminary way to address problems and issues in the GOA groundfish fishery.

“Sector split” means the total allowable catch (TAC) goes to a gear group, not the individual.

Madsen anticipates the council will request staff to provide discussion about sector split details, such as what species would be included.

“Sectors could be whatever we define the sector to be,” Madsen said. “Sector splits, in some respect, are the first step that often is made when you are moving toward trying to stop the race for fish.”

But it doesn’t accomplish stopping the race for fish, she said.

“You’ve fenced off who gets what as far as sectors go, but then there becomes a race for fish within that sector,” she said.

Although sector splits would eliminate the race for fish between gear types, competition would still exist between individual participants in the respective gear types.

“We won’t do anything with GOA rationalization alternatives that we have, but we will entertain the recommendation that we look at sector splits instead of moving forward with the full rationalization,” Madsen said.

“I anticipate getting those recommendations from the City of Kodiak and the Kodiak Island Borough from the task force.”

She anticipates public comments on which direction the council should go if people don’t like what they have done so far.

The other big agenda item in the December meeting is charter halibut management.

“We continue to strive to find ways to constrain the sport catch to the current guideline harvest level (GHL) that was established in 2000. It is difficult because of our inability to react quickly to constrain them,” Madsen said.

One of the first steps may be a license program for charter operators that would define eligible charter operators, she said.

The council will review a report on the 2005 GHL, which the members believe was exceeded again in Area 2C. Madsen said there has been difficulty enforcing the five-fish limit regulation.

The charterboat stakeholder committee is working on short-term and long-term solutions to this issue and will give their reports at the meeting.

“We continue to try to examine the potential tools to constrain the current halibut charter take within the current GHL and at the same time, we’re looking for long-term solutions on how to manage halibut between the commercial and the charter,” Madsen said.

She anticipates a plethora of public comments based on diverse opinions.

Other topics to be discussed include Bering Sea habitat conservation, bycatch of prohibited species and seabird interactions.

In its December meeting, the council determines the total TAC for 2007 and 2008 for every species in the GOA and the Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands, except crab and scallops.

When the council receives new stock assessments next fall, it may alter the 2008 TAC.

Mirror writer Deanna Cooper may be reached via e-mail at dcooper@kodiakdailymirror.com.