International Pacific Halibut Commission International Pacific Halibut Commission The International Pacific Halibut Commission (IPHC) is an International Fisheries Organization, having Canada and the United States as its members, responsible for the management of stocks of Pacific halibut or "Hippoglossus stenolepis" within the Pacific waters of its member states. It was founded in 1923 by an international treaty. The original treaty has been revised three times (1953,1976,1979). The 1979 amendment clarified the role of the IPHC in the management of the fishery through the North Pacific Halibut Act of 1982. It has carried out many activities including the use of chartered commercial fishing vessels to
Fish anatomy Their retinas generally have both rod cells and cone cells (for scotopic and photopic vision), and most species have colour vision. Some fish can see ultraviolet and some can see polarized light. Amongst jawless fish, the lamprey has well-developed eyes, while the hagfish has only primitive eyespots. The ancestors of modern hagfish, thought to be the protovertebrate were evidently pushed to very deep, dark waters, where they were less vulnerable to sighted predators, and where it is advantageous to have a convex eye-spot, which gathers more light than a flat or concave one. Unlike humans, fish normally adjust focus by