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Fishery Bulletin 101(2) 



j2 



E 



A CPFV logbookcowcod catch B CPFV rockfish effort 



65 70 75 80 85 90 95 



D Blocks with effort 



z i= 



65 70 75 80 85 90 95 



65 70 75 80 85 90 95 



E Positive blocks-cowcod 



65 70 75 80 85 90 95 



F Positive blocks-cowcod 



65 70 75 80 85 90 95 



Figure 12 



Commercial passenger fishing vessel (CPFV) log book data during the 1964-97 seasons including: CPFV cowcod 

 catch (A); fishing effort for rockfish (B); catch per unit of effort (CPUE) from cowcod catch and rockfish effort 

 (C); number of California Department of Fish and Game ( CDFG ) fishing blocks with rockfish effort ( D); number 

 of blocks with cowcod catch > zero (E); and proportion of blocks positive (catch > zero) for cowcod (F). In Panel 

 C, the solid line shows trends in CPUE computed as the mean of catch divided by effort for each logbook record 

 during each season. The broken line shows trends in CPUE computed as total catch divided by total effort 

 during each season. 



Managers may develop harvest limits to discourage 

 targeting and catch of cowcod but effectiveness will likely 

 be undermined by discard mortality. Cowcod are part of a 

 multispecies commercial and recreational fishery and are 

 harvested along with a large number of other species. As 

 shown above, an increasing fraction of recreational fish- 

 ing effort occurs offshore where cowcod are most common. 

 Adult cowcod are associated with rocky bottom features 

 that attract other species of recreational and commercial 

 fishing interest and are easy to find with modern naviga- 

 tional equipment. Adult cowcod are strictly demersal, are 

 generally found in waters deeper than 90 m, and cannot be 

 released alive because they have swimbladders that rup- 

 ture when these fish are caught and brought to the surface 

 during commercial and recreational fishing. 



In response to the challenging problems in rebuilding 

 cowcod, the Pacific P'ishery Management C'ouncil and Cali- 

 fornia Department of Fish and Game established new man- 

 agement measures, effective January 2001. New measures 

 for cowcod include two cowcod consei-vation areas (CCAs) 



in the SCB, which encompass about 14,750 km- of surface 

 area and include prime offshore cowcod habitat (Fig. 13). 

 Regulations prohibit most bottom-fishing activities in 

 waters deeper than 37 m within the CCAs, no retention 

 of cowcod taken an3rwhere along the coasts of California, 

 Oregon, and Washington, and reductions in the number of 

 hooks per rod in the California recreational fishery (from 

 five to two per rod). In planning, a I'^f harvest rate is used 

 to account for unavoidable mortality due to contact with 

 fishing gear directed at other species. 



Cowcod is just one example of a long-lived, relatively 

 sedentary apex predator closely associated with bottom 

 structure that has been exploited by commercial and 

 recreational fisheries. Data for cowcod, including long 

 time series of catch estimates, recreational CPUE, and 

 ichthyoplankton data, are sufficient to describe the stock's 

 decline in the SCB. The cowcod conservation areas were 

 the first large no-take marine protected areas on the West 

 Coast and may be important in rebuilding rockfish popu- 

 lations off southern California. However, managers have 



