Fishing with a particular allow, it took them round 4 hours to land the 109-pound flatfish
From left: Mathieu and Rémi Aubin with the 109-pound Atlantic halibut they caught by way of the ice. {Photograph} by Mathieu Aubin
A gaggle of Quebec anglers hooked into an enormous halibut on Sunday that weighed over 100 kilos. With the assistance of two different fishermen, Rémi and Mathieu Aubin landed the fish after a four-hour battle. However first, they needed to widen the outlet they’d minimize. It’s a picture that many hard-water anglers would have a tough time wrapping their minds round: pulling a 109-pound Atlantic halibut by way of the ice.
U.S. anglers commonly chase Pacific halibut alongside the northern reaches of the West Coast — significantly in Alaskan waters. We will even goal Atlantic halibut off the coast of Maine, which holds a brief sportfishing season in Might and June. We will additionally fish for a bounty of freshwater species throughout the winter, when the ice on our native lakes will get thick sufficient. Nevertheless, there are only a few locations, particularly in North America, the place you possibly can ice fish for the world’s largest flatfish.
One in every of these places is Saguenay Fjord within the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean area of Quebec. It’s the place a big freshwater river, the Riviére Saguenay, meets the St. Lawrence River because it kinds a slim, deep inlet within the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This creates a singular fishery the place the recent water from the river flows over the salty water of the gulf and freezes stable. (Seawater freezes at a lower temperature than freshwater, and it must be colder for longer since bays are sometimes deeper than lakes.)
Canadian ice fishermen have lengthy plied these waters, and through the years, there’s been the occasional report of an angler catching an enormous Atlantic halibut whereas fishing for cod, skates, and different species. However since Atlantic halibut are protected — they’re classified as endangered by the Worldwide Union for the Conservation of Nature — the legislation has historically required sport fishermen to launch any halibut they catch. This modified in 2022, when the Canadian authorities determined to make an exception to the legislation within the identify of science.
The Atlantic Halibut Winter Fishing Project for Scientific Purposes has continued within the Saguenay Fjord within the two years since. It permits ice fishermen within the space to reap a complete of 100 Atlantic halibut over the course of a season. They need to first receive a particular license from an area scientific committee, and the minimal size for harvest is 85 centimeters, or round 33 inches. (Rules nonetheless require smaller fish to be launched alive.) These harvested fish are then studied by scientists to allow them to be taught extra in regards to the halibut that inhabit the fjord.
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“Research recommend that the populations of some groundfish species within the Saguenay Fjord are ‘sink populations,’ which suggests they’re remoted from these of the Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence,” scientists with Fisheries and Oceans Canada write. “Within the case of Atlantic halibut, this problem has been little studied … and the info collected throughout the challenge will assist advance information of the species.”
The 109-pound Atlantic halibut that Rémi and Mathieu Aubin caught on Jan. 21 was the primary one harvested as a part of the scientific challenge this winter. A series of videos uploaded to Fb present the 2 anglers combating, touchdown, after which weighing the huge fish in entrance of a crowded room on the Musée du Fjord.
Neither of them have been in a position to present touch upon the catch because of a language barrier (each males communicate French), however Mathieu posted images of the halibut on Fb a day after they caught it.
“What to say after 24 hours…truthfully I’m nonetheless speechless,” Mathieu writes in a translated model of the Facebook post. “Dwelling this second with Rémi Aubin touches me enormously. Once I was youthful, just a few years outdated, he took me with him to completely different our bodies of water, [including] in fact the majestic fjord. He not solely handed on this ardour to me, however extra importantly, these values!”
Mathieu provides that, in honor of these values, he’ll be donating the meat from the large halibut to 16 individuals in want. He clarifies that he received’t be accepting any cash in return as a result of, similar to within the U.S., it’s unlawful for sport anglers to promote their catch in Canada with no industrial license.
