A fish blog.com

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

The Atlantic halibut is one of the biggest fish found in Norwegian waters. While the female halibut can reach a weight of more than 200 kilos, the male is considerably smaller. The pictures shown on this post are taken during a tagging experiment in the western part of Norway. The halibuts are caught on long lines.

It was believed that the maximum size of male halibuts in Norwegian waters was about 50 kilos which was the weight of the biggest male halibut caught by then.

A couple of days ago I got some pictures in my mailbox. The pictures were sent me by Torstein Halstensen who is an eager halibut-tagger. He uses a lot of his spare time and holidays to catch and tag halibut in order to get better knowledge about the behaviour of this vulnerable species.

The halibut shown on this page is a male which proportions are breaking the former record. This male was 1,75 meters long, weighing 75-80 kilos.

The fish was tagged and released, and if it get caught again we will learn more about the maximum size of male halibuts.

In spite of the cold and windy weather we have had the last weeks in the southwestern par of Norway, some keen recreational fishermen manage to arrange fishing trips. The photos below were sent me by Jon Henneli. A couple of days ago he was out fishing on deep water – using long lines.

Fishing on deep water is always exciting, and in addition to cod and haddock you can see a halibut on the photo above. Catching halibut on long line is very exciting. The shimmer of the white belly is visible long before the halibut reaches the surface. To Jon the halibut is a very valuable and special fish. Though he likes to go fishing and to harvest from the sea, he feels a great responsibility for what he is doing. Knowing the problems concerning the halibut stock in the southern part of Norway, he chooses to release every halibut he gets.

He places a tag in the halibut. By tagging and recapturing tagged halibut he hopes that we will get valuable information about the growth and migration of the halibut in the area. He has tagged a lot of halibut earlier, often cooperating with Thorstein Halstensen. Every halibut they catch are released, hopefully to live long lives; growing and reproducing.

Jon and his friends did not return empty handed. Above you can see two of the biggest cod. Even on cold and wet days a fishing trip gives a lot of pleasure and excitement – and some excellent seafood.