The past two weeks have seen dock prices in Homer jump as much as $1 per pound as summer demand increases. Prices for smalls, 10-20-pound fish, were steady throughout the beginning of the season at around $2.50 per pound, while medium (20-40-pound) and large (40-pound and up) fish went from $2.90 to $3.10. This past week saw prices ranging from $3.50 for smalls to $3.95 for large.

Some buyers have speculated that a strengthening economy in the Lower 48 also may be playing a role. The statewide average ex-vessel price for halibut in 2007, the most recent year for which the figure is available, was $4.33 per pound. The average price in area 3A, which includes Homer, was $4.40 per pound.

Buyers in Homer are reporting a glut of small fish this season, with some loads containing as much as 80 to 90 percent smalls. The International Pacific Halibut Commission received a proposal at its 2008 annual meeting to reduce the size limit from 32 inches to 30 inches. At the time, the IPHC staff was directed to review how a reduced size limit would affect assessment, yield and long-term productivity of the halibut stock.

Sablefish (black cod) is fetching more this year than last, more than $5 per pound for fish heavier than 5 pounds. The relative strength of the yen in Japan, which is the destination of most black cod caught in Alaska, compared to the U.S. dollar, boosts the price paid to fishermen.

Seward is by far the port of choice for black cod deliveries, with 3.1 million pounds landed so far this year, compared to 2.1 million in Kodiak, and 1.1 million in Homer. Seward is closer to the most productive black cod fishing grounds than Homer, and Icicle Seafoods has a processing plant at the dock, so product does not have to be trucked to a processing facility.

So far, 41 percent of the 43.5 million pound halibut quota has been landed state-wide, and 63 percent of the 26.5 million pound black cod quota.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration director Jane Lubchenco is promoting "catch shares," what Alaskans know as IFQs, as a way to rescue ailing fisheries in U.S. waters.

As a part of last week's Capitol Hill Ocean Week symposium, sponsored by the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation, Lubchenco spoke of the need to affix economic values to the solution of environmental problems, in the context of a blurring of the line between public and private interests, according to the Gloucester Daily Times.

The Times reported that Lubchenco described "catch shares" as a new direction, and converting the New England fishery into a partial catch share system is on the agenda for final approval of the New England Fishery Management Council later this month.

The Times reported that the New England council seems committed to an experimental, hybrid approach to catch shares in which more than half the fishing permits will be aggregated into voluntary cooperatives or "sectors" and given a group catch share, while those boats not choosing to work in a sector will be on their own in a residual effort control group.

Residents of New England and Alaska are vying for the position as head of the National Marine Fisheries Service, a position that will be filled by Lubchenco. Arnie Fuglvog, currently the fisheries aide to U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, is one of two people under consideration. The other is Brian Rothschild, an academic scientist at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. At this point, Fuglvog has received more recommendations, but Rothschild has the better resume.

Cristy Fry has commercial fished in Homer since 1978.

She also designs and builds gear for the industry. She currently longlines for halibut and gillnets salmon in upper Cook Inlet aboard the F/V Realist. She can be reached at realist468@gmail.com.