UNIT 15 

 PACIFIC COAST GROUNDFISH FISHERY 



Species and area 



Pacific whiting'*'^ 



Pacific whiting (U S ) 



Sablefish 



Lingcod^* 



Lingcod (U S ) 



Pacific cod 



Flatfisfies: 

 Arrowtooth flounder 

 Dover sole 

 English sole 

 Petrale sole 

 Other flatfish' 



Rockfishes 

 Bocaccio 

 Canary rockfish 

 Chilipepper rockfish 

 Pacific ocean perch 

 Shortbelly rockfish 

 Thornyheads 

 Yellowtail rockfish^ 

 Yellowtail rockfish (US I 

 Widow rockfish 

 Other rockfish'' 



Other groundfish 



Total (U S ) 



Total (U S +Canada) 



'RAY IS the average 1995-97 landed commercial catch as reported to the Pacific Fisheries Information Network (PacFINj iPacific States Marine Fisheries 



Commission, 45 SE S2nd Dnve, Suite 100, Gladstone, OR 97027) 



^CPY IS taken from the Pacific Fishenes Management Council's Acceptable Biological Catch for 1998 (PFMC, 19971 

 ■'Stock Status compared to the stock size that would produce LTPY 

 ''Includes tribal catch 

 ^tock as defined crosses Canadian border Estimates of Canadian catch are fron-i Martin Dorn (personal communication, NMFS. AFSC. RACE. 7600. 



Sand Point Way, Seattle. WA 981 15) for Pacific whiting. Jack Tagart (personal communication. Wash Dept Fish & Wildl . Fish Management Program. 



Marine Resources Division. 600 Captial Way N . Olympia, WA 98501). for yellowtail, and the 1997 lingcod stock assessment (PFMC. 1997) Canadian 



catch in 1997 is assumed equal to 1996 

 ^Recreational catch estimates were added to the commercial catch estimates 438 t lingcod. 200 t bocaccio, and 1,980 t other rockfish including 600 t 



black rockfish 



'Does not include halibut 



Pacific whiting. 



system has been beneficial in creating a well-de- 

 fined set ot participants, but it has not decreased 

 the number oF participants sufficiently to allow 

 tor increases in the monthly vessel limits. 

 Nonpermitted vessels may participate in a small- 

 scale, open access fishery. 



Other major restrictions on the groundfish 

 fishery include a minimum mesh size on trawls to 

 allow escapement ot undersized tish, and area/sea- 

 son restrictions on the whiting fishery to decrease 

 bycatch ot salmon. 



Species and Status 



The Pacific coast groundfish fisheries are gen- 

 erally managed with a constant proportional rate 

 of harvest such that the expected level ot egg pro- 

 duction (or spawning biomass) per recruit will be 

 35 or 40% (for rockfish) of the unfished level. The 

 exception is Pacific whiting, which has a more con- 

 servative and varying harvest rate in recognition 

 of the extreme natural fluctuations in recruitment. 



Because many groundfish species have longev- 



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