Restaurants buying Halibut

[fishfather]

Apparently there are local asian [size 1]restaurants[/size] buying live Halibut. They buy them from local fishermen fresh off charters or private boats.

They then keep them alive in a saltwater tanks for customers to choose.

This was in an ad in LA Times or OC Register according to a friend of mine. I am trying to track down the article but I was curious what BFT members feelings were on this.

My worry is this will cause local over fishing of Halibut and to many small or illegal Halibut being sold.

If and when I find the article I will inform CFG about this.

[size 3]UPDATE:[/size]

[size 3]This is from DFG Calif 9/23/03[/size]

[size 2]Hello Joe,

Fish and Game Code Section 7121 prohibits the sale and purchase of sport-caught fish. If these restaurants are buying fish directly from an angler fishing under the authority of a sport fishing license or fishing from a public pier, both the restaurant and the angler are breaking the law.

I'd be happy to pass the names of any restaurants that you suspect are doing this along to enforcement personnel. Please share any information that you may have on this activity.

Thanks for your concern,

Best regards,

Edgar W. Roberts III
Marine Biologist
California Department of Fish & Game
4665 Lampson Ave Suite C
Los Alamitos, CA 90720
562.342.7199 Office
562.342.7139 Fax
310.291.8862 Cell
[/size][url "mailto:eroberts@dfg.ca.gov"][#0000ff][size 2]eroberts@dfg.ca.gov[/size][/#0000ff][/url]
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[BFFG]

hi there fishfather, thanks for the interesting reading.
I can see why your worried about people selling undersized halibut.
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[fishfather]

[size 2]See original Post Above[/size]
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