Paul fishermen in particular, the halibut bycatch issue is also a question of justice and the right to harvest the marine resources that exist essentially in their front yards. With the Bering Sea as the rearing grounds for young halibut that as adults end up throughout the Pacific as far south as Oregon, the stakes are extraordinarily high for Alaska’s fishermen as fisheries managers meet this week to decide how to parcel out this shrinking resource. The trawl industry has said it can’t cut halibut bycatch without dramatic cuts to its overall harvest, and without incurring significant financial losses. Paul fishermen say their future depends on those out-of-state boats wasting fewer halibut, which can fetch five times the price of the fish species the trawlers are targeting. Paul fishing fleet whose kids have grown up fishing on his boat. "A lot of people had to fold,” says Jeff Kauffman, a member of the St. Paul fishermen-as well as halibut fishermen across Alaska-faced increasing cuts in their harvest limits. About 20 years ago, the population started taking a dive, and St. Pacific halibut are flat and bottom dwelling, and can weigh hundreds of pounds. Paul fisherman Myron Melovidov, who fishes with his grown sons. The island’s small, independent fishing fleet of only 15 vessels needs all the help it can get: Far offshore, factory trawlers targeting other fish species net and chuck overboard as waste millions of pounds of the valuable fish each year. It’s the start of the fishing season, and the Blessing of the Fleet is a community affair, an opportunity to give best wishes to the fishermen heading out into the unforgiving northern waters in search of halibut. Paul, a tiny island of 500 souls in the middle of the Bering Sea. Each year in mid-June, Father John, dressed in long black robes, heads to the small boat harbor on St.
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