NOAA Fisheries and the North Pacific and Pacific Fishery Management Councils are responsible for allocating allowable catch among harvesters in the U.S. Since 1923, the United States and Canada have coordinated Pacific halibut management through a bilateral commission known as the International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC).Marine mammals and sharks sometimes eat Pacific halibut but, due to their large size, adult Pacific halibut are rarely preyed upon by other fish.Adults aggressively prey on a variety of groundfish, sculpins, sand lance, herring, octopus, crabs, clams, and occasionally smaller Pacific halibut.Halibut live to be relatively old-the oldest halibut on record was 55 years old, but halibut over age 25 are rare.Juveniles eat small crustaceans and other organisms that live on the seafloor.Larval Pacific halibut feed on zooplankton (tiny floating organisms).The larvae slowly float close to the surface, where they remain for about 6 months until they reach their adult form and settle to the bottom in shallow water.Eggs hatch after 12 to 20 days, dependent on water temperature. Scientists believe females release their eggs in batches over several days during the spawning season.Depending on their size, females can have between 500,000 and 4 million eggs. They spawn during the winter in deep water along the continental slope, mainly in the Bering Sea, Aleutian Islands, Gulf of Alaska, and south to British Columbia.Males sexually mature when they are 8 years old, and females are able to reproduce by the age of 12.Pacific halibut are one of the largest flatfish-they can weigh up to about 500 pounds and grow to more than 8 feet long.
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