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The halibut in Norway suffers from previous decades of over fishing. The situation is fortunately improving but strict regulation is still necessary if the stoch should be able to grow to former hights.

Torstein Halstensen has spent years tagging halibut from serveral areas in the souther part of Norway. He spend most of his spare time in a boat, fishing for halibut. By tagging, releasing and recapturing the fish he has added new knowledge about the migration pattern and behavior of halibut from different areas. Some fish are recaptured at the exact same position as it was tagged.

In an email Torstein tells about the finding of a spawning ground in a fjord. Torstein has interviewed a lot of old fishermen and searced through a lot of old documents in his search for traditional spawning grounds. One that has been forgotten for decades was recently re found by Torstein.

He does not share information about the locations of all the spawning grounds he has found. His work is done in order learn more about how we can protect the halibut – not as a guide for fishermen who want to fish as much halibut as possible.

The pictures in this post shows Torstein fishing halibut in a Norwegian fjord. All the halibut are being tagged and then released.

While the small ones can be lifted on board, the biggest must enter the boat from the stern.

Torstein has long experience in getting the halibut off the hook without causing damages to its mouth. Last year he caught the biggest male halibut ever in Norwegian waters. The last picture shows a halibut that is recaptured and then tagged by Torstein for the second time. Photos: Audun Skjølberg

Some pictures dropped into may mailbox today. The pictures were sent by Torstein Halstensen and show some highlights from his last fishing trips. Earlier I have showed pictures of a giant ling and the one caught recently by Torstein and his friends is a nice one too. The ling (shown below) was taken with long lines on deep water off the coast of Norway.

On “A fish blog” you will find a couple of posts about Torstein and his friends tagging halibut. All halibut caught are tagged and released. Below there are two pictures showing halibut caught on long lines. On the first picture Kjetil Tjeldflått is hauling the line.

On the picture above you can see Torstein holding a halibut with the red tag placed near the dorsal fin. The picture was taken by an experienced halibut fisherman; Sigfred Kvellestad.

The last picture shows Arild Henneli holding a halibut just before it was released. We can also se the “edible” part of the catch; mostly large ling. Each hook on the line was baited with half a mackerel.

After a long winter and a lot of bad weather I finally got the chance to use my boat. Here is a kind of fishing report:

The sun shone, the wind was calm and I went home from work early. This day I wanted to use what I call “mini long lines”, which are short long lines. I use three lines with 10-12 hooks on each line, and mackerel is used as bait. The plan was to fish for turbot and dabs on sand bottom (20 meters depth). When I hauled the first line I saw a bright shadow coming up from the deep. It was too big and dark to be a dab so I hoped for a turbot.

I used a landing net to get the fish on board. No, it was not a turbot. It was a small halibut.

Halibut is not the most common species in the southern part of Norway, and some people prefer to release (and tag) halibut caught on long lines.

Hauling the lines is always exciting. With the line in my hand I can feel the movements when a fish has taken the bait. On the next line I got a cod. The hook fell out of its mouth the moment I got it in my landing net.

When I got my second halibut, I almost felt as if I was doing something illegal. It is impossible to release them as long as they swallow the hook. The third halibut was very small, and it had not managed to swallow the bait. I just had to take a photo of it before I let it go.

I then gave up fishing for turbot, and I moved to an area where dabs are more common. I got two dabs before I went home. This was really a perfect day. I hope that my catch of young halibuts indicates that there are some recruitment to the stock. Regarding the turbot – I will not give up.

Today I received some pictures from an unusual fishing trip in Norway. Fishing for halibut is exciting and the halibut is a precious and good tasting fish. Still someone prefers to release the halibut. Their concern for the halibut stock in the southern part of Norway has given them a new way of handling the catch.

Here we see Hans Harald Storli and Jon Henneli hauling the line. A small halibut (85 cm. long) has taken the bait.

Hans Harald is removing the fishing hook as carefully as possible. He is then placing a tag in the halibut.

This was not the only halibut caught on the long line. A couple of minutes later a bigger halibut entered the boat.

This one got tagged as well. You can see the red tag placed near the fins on the left side of the halibut. This fish was 140 cm. long; weighing 40 kg. A close up of its head can be seen below.

By measuring, weighing, tagging and recapturing tagged halibuts Hans Harald and Jon hope they can learn more about the local halibut stocks and their migration pattern. They do this on their spare time hoping that their work and engagement will result in better protection for the halibut stocks in the southern part of Norway.

After tagging the halibuts, the fish is released. To Hans Harald, Jon and their girlfriends – Kristine Kolbjørnsen and Malin Hagander – this gives a perfect ending to a perfect fishing trip.

All photos: Malin Hagander.