Pacific halibut on the move: a renewed understanding of adult migration from a coastwide tagging study

Abstract

Results of a coastwide tagging study show that ontogenetic migration of Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) continues for larger fish, whereas in recent years the assumption had been that only smaller, younger fish migrated. In 2003–2004, a total of 67 000 Pacific halibut tagged with passive integrated transponder tags were released by the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) from Oregon to the Bering Sea. Portside scanning recovered over 3000 of these tags. Models were fitted that allowed commercial fishing mortality to be a function of fish length, year, and IPHC regulatory area, while migration probability was a function of area and length. Estimates from the models support the view that exploitation rates were much higher in eastern than western areas prior to the reduction of quotas following new results from a coastwide stock assessment in 2007. We explore possible explanations for differences between tagging and IPHC stock assessment results and note that this research provides confirmation of historical inferences regarding patterns of halibut migration based on conventional tagging.