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Voices of the Northwest
Near-total Shutdown Looms for Rockfish along
West Coast
by Jonathan Brinckman
from The Oregonian
The Lady Washington
courtesy of Hood River News
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Federal regulators are weighing the near-complete shutdown of fishing for rockfish
along the entire continental shelf of the Western United States in order to allow
several severely depleted stocks to rebuild.
The unprecedented action would follow a decade of sharply reduced harvests of rockfish,
a group of about 55 species commonly sold in shops and restaurants as Pacific red
snapper. Allowed harvests of some rockfish have dropped by as much as 85 percent.
Closures would affect hundreds of fishing boats up and down the West Coast, including
boats based in the Oregon ports of Astoria, Newport, Coos Bay and others.
Harvest shutdowns would be implemented in 2003, after being ordered by the Pacific
Fishery Management Council next September.
The prospect of shutdowns emerged as scientific advisers to the council last week
outlined the dire condition of several key species of rockfish, including yelloweye
rockfish, canary rockfish and bocaccio. The council is required by federal law to
order whatever fishing restrictions are required to rebuild depleted stocks.
"For some boats, I think we'll have to say, 'Stay out of the water next year,'
" said Ralph Brown, a member of the council who is a Brookings-based commercial
troller. "Virtually all of the fisheries on the continental shelf catch a few
of these (depleted) fish, and the problem is we don't have any of these fish we can
spare."
Scientists will not officially report their findings to the council until it meets
June 16 in San Francisco. The council will make a final decision on next year's fishing
levels when it meets in September in Portland.
The preliminary figures are grim. Scientists and regulators can see no way to avoid
widespread closures.
Alec MacCall, a fishery biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service in Santa
Cruz, Calif., said he will not enjoy making his presentation to the council.
"It's a nightmare," he said. "I don't look forward to putting people
out of work. It's honest work."
The problem is that canary rockfish, yelloweye rockfish and bocaccio swim with other
species of fish and are caught when those species -- among them halibut, squid and
shrimp -- are targeted. That means that not only will harvests of the most depleted
fish be sharply reduced, perhaps in some cases to nothing, but allowed harvests of
the healthier stocks could be cut sharply as well.
Bocaccio have declined to about 5 percent of their original abundance, MacCall said.
The fish, which lives for more than 30 years and reaches about 10 pounds, does not
reproduce well. Bocaccio are found mainly off California. Canary rockfish and yelloweye
rockfish extend further north, and are also found off the coasts of Oregon and Washington.
Bocaccio and yelloweye are the most imperiled fish, the scientists think, and they
would take a long time to rebuild. If all bocaccio harvest were stopped, it would
take 90 years for the fish to rebound to healthy levels, the council scientists calculate.
If all yelloweye harvest were stopped, it would take 158 years for the populations
off Northern California to rebuild to healthy levels and 96 years for the Oregon-Washington
populations to rebuild.
Regulators say they expect to allow bottom fish harvests off the continental shelf,
where the most-depleted fish are not found. But that's no comfort to many fishermen.
The continental shelf extends out from the coast to a depth of about 600 feet, until
it reaches the continental slope 30 miles or more offshore.
Tom Morrison, who keeps his 65-foot trawler, the Pacific Queen, in Warrenton, says
taking his trawler beyond the continental shelf will take too much time and money.
"I don't know how we are going to deal with this," he said. "I don't
think people on the coast realize how bad things are going to get."
Fisherman are reacting to news of the likely fishery closures with "shock, fear,
anger and disgust," said Rod Moore, president of the West Coast Seafood Processors
Association in Portland.
"Right now the word is trickling out, and we're trying to figure out how we
can deal with this," Moore said. "There are not a whole lot of solutions
out there if these numbers hold, and we expect they will."
The allowed annual West Coast harvest of yelloweye rockfish, now set at 13.5 metric
tons, could drop to about half a metric ton, almost nothing in a commercial fishery.
That's 300 of the 4-pound fish, about as many as are accidentally hooked each year
by the International Pacific Halibut Commission during its annual survey of the health
of halibut stocks.
"In the case of yelloweye rockfish, we haven't even got the ability to do a
halibut stock assessment and have yelloweye left over for harvest," Brown said.
You can reach Jonathan Brinckman at 503-221-8190 or by e-mail at jbrinckman@news.oregonian.com.
Material used unnder Fair Use copyright law for educational purposes.
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