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The International Pacific Halibut
Commission was established to conserve and manage the halibut stocks in the Convention
Area to those levels which would achieve and maintain the maximum sustainable yield from
the fishery. The first arrangement for the management of the Pacific halibut fishery was
the Convention for the Preservation of the Halibut Fishery, signed at Washington on 2
March 1923 by Canada and the United States. The IPHC now operated under the terms of the
Convention for the Preservation of the Halibut Fishery of the Northern Pacific Ocean and
Bering sea was signed between the two parties in Ottawa on 2 March 1953 and entered into
force on 28 October 1953. When the two countries extended their fisheries jurisdiction in
the late 1970s, an amending Protocol was signed in Washington on 29 March 1979 and entered
into force on 15 October 1980.
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| Participation is limited to Canada and the United States. |
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The main functions of the Commission are to coordinate
scientific studies relating to the halibut fishery and to formulate regulations designed
to develop the stocks of halibut to those levels which permit optimum utilization. The
measures recommended by the Commission are submitted to the two governments for approval.
Upon approval the regulations are enforced by the appropriate agencies of both
governments. The Commission has regulatory powers, and sets the total allowable catch of
halibut in the Convention Area. The Commission meets annually to review all regulatory
proposals, including those made by the scientific staff and the subsidiary advisory
bodies: the Conference Board, which was established in 1931 and represents vessel owners
and fishermen; the Processor Advisory Group, which was formed in 1996 and represents
halibut processors; and the Research Advisory Board, which was formed in 1999 and consists
of both fishers and processors who offer suggestion to the IPHC Director and staff on
where Commission research should focus.
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