Mains summer lobster season is n
full swing, but right now there
is another ocean delicacy that s
getting attention, especially in
fish markets and restaurants. Ts
is the month when hundreds of
fishermen can catch halibut,
the sometimes huge fish that
have long been prized by
fishermen and fish eaters alike.
SO207 Stan Kerrigan went to see how it's
done and why the halibut season means
so much to those who try to catch them.
On board the lobster boat bug
catcher out of Port Clyde,
we are headed, we hope,
for halibut. Oh, I love it.
We're going out with longtime
friend Jerry Cushman,
a leader in Maine's lobster industry.
But this time of year,
he and many others also hunt a
very different sea creature.
You catch 100 pounder and
you get 8 to $10 a pound.
Yeah, there's money in it.
Little out to dinner money, the
bottom dwelling halibut has been
a prize catch for generations
of main fishermen. Years ago,
they would sometimes haul in hat
as big as the fishermen themsel,
weighing hundreds of pounds.
And the fish are still
caught essentially the same way.
They've always been using long
lines of baited hooks sitting
on the bottom, then hauled up.
How long is this line 65?
65 fathoms, 65 fathoms, 390 feet
to the bottom. That's where the
ground line full of hooks begin.
It's anywhere from 300 to 600 feet long. I
think we had a fish, but I don't
know if he's on there anymore.
This line, though, has just one halibut.
It's been chewed up by seals
and was too short anyway.
This haul of it typically would be alive and.
To seal them, Kill it and I woud
be able to release it. Halibut
are considered overfished and not plentiful,
but they can still be legally caught.
Jerry is one of just 74 Mainers
who have permits to fish halibut
in deeper federal waters.
All year long, he's allowed juse
fish per day over 41 inches lon.
More than 500 people are licensd
to fish halibut only in state
waters inside the three mile li.
They're limited to just May ande
also have a 41 inch minimum siz,
but can keep all of the fish they catch.
Yeah, no fish. No fish.
More chances. That's what I got.
His first line produces nothing
like they say it is called fishg
and not catching On to line 2.
And all the time he's being
monitored electronically by
federal fishing regulators.
There are cameras on the boat ad
computers to register any fish caught,
but this line is no better.
Is your dinner Don
just an eel or two? Line 2 finay
is all in with no halibut,
but the third and last line shows home.
He's pulling too hard.
The hope doesn't last, But then another.
I got something, but it ain't.
I don't feel like it's a fish.
And finally. A fish.
It is. Just barely.
There he is, but small.
What's up with the babies?
You have babies before you
get big ones, I guess. Jerry
manages to keep a sense of humor for us,
suggesting photographer Scout
Fishman and I are bad luck,
what fishermen call a Jonah.
This is clearly, clearly the sign of a Jonah
being on the boat.
We won't mention name Scout.
We won't call anybody by name.
But it's still been a few hours of burning
fuel and bait for no fish and no money.
Sometimes they come up empty.
Sometimes, you know,
it's it's sometimes you, you kn,
you get Jonah's aboard and sometimes,
and he has caught a lot of halibut before.
These clips are from the last few years,
showing the excitement when a
big one is hauled on board.
You're not in it for the money.
I'm not in it for the money.
You don't steam all the
way out here for the money.
You know them guys that can
catch 10 in a day can good have
a good days pay for doing it.
But no, this is this is a hobby.
And today one of his friends did score big.
Wow. He got two fishing a littlt
closer to shore in state waters.
Chris Anderson caught his firsto
legal halibut ever 34 and 36 pos
you could feel it tugging.
You know, makes a little jerk,
quick jerk, couple jerks.
And you asking yourself,
do I really have one?
Or was that just the anchor
coming off bottom? You know?
One was likely to be sold to a
local restaurant, the other bout
by the fisherman's coop and cut
up right on the dock spinner.
Lee said it would all be sold
by the end of the day.
For Chris, it's money in his po.
And perseverance rewarded.
Guy told me the only way to getm
put hooks in the water. So, you know,
So are you hooked down?
Yeah, I'm hooked. Yeah, I can't.
Soon as this weather goes by,
we'll be doing it again.
Same for Jerry, even on a bad d.
And he too, will be back.
You get it. And you know,
there's a big element on there.
What's that feel like?
Get your heart beaten?
It's like.
Deer hunting or anything.
You know, once you see that ani,
you see a big buck or anything,
your heart gets
boom, boom, boom. So unfortunat,
we didn't have that today. I was hoping,
really, really hoping.
Yes, he'll be back. The lure
of a big halibut, irresistible.
It is, after all, fishing.
So Don says he bought 2 pounds of halibut
and it was very tasty.
Main fishermen may like catching halibut,
but they don't catch a lot of i.
According to records from the
Department of Marine Resources,
in the 1950s the halibut catch
averaged around £110,000 per ye.
The past 10 years the catch aved
half of that amount, but in
the 1950s the price was around
$0.25 a pound. For the last dec,
the average price for halibut for the
fisherman was more than $6 a po.