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Not a doubt in my mind. I would have been doing the same thing. Hook, harpoon, shoot, bleed, filet, eat.
Sour grapes. Half those hosers would have kept that fish if they'd caught it. Damned nice fish.
Sounds like there is alot of stink in the fishing community over the retention of a large halibut caught recently. Some people felt the angler should have released the fish because the large ones are the baby factories. Theres a call for releasing of the large ones.http://blogs.seattletimes.com/reeltimenorthwest/2014/05/29/photos-mammoth-halibut-caught-in-eastern-strait-of-juan-de-fuca/
It is my understanding and I am sure people will correct me if I am wrong that like Ling cod the larger fish are the ones that produce the most off spring. So in keeping those we possibly impact future fishing populations. I also understand the long liners(commercial) have more of an impact than sport fishermen.
If the big ones need to be saved then WDFW should create a slot size limit to save the big ones like with sturgeon. If the current style of management is ensuring a lasting fishery then I don't see a problem.The guy did everything right, congrats to him on taking a fantastic fish.