A trial effort giving US West Coast trawl fishermen new flexibility has helped them take advantage of rebounding rockfish numbers whilst still protecting salmon and other species.
Almost 14 million pounds of fish were caught in 2018 bringing around US$5.5m in additional revenue to West Coast communities, according to NOAA Fisheries’ estimates.
“We were eager for groundfish vessels to take advantage of healthy stocks and high quotas as quickly as possible while being sensitive to the need to minimise interactions with salmon and other protected species,” said Lori Steele, executive director of the West Coast Seafood Processors Association, which joined other industry groups in proposing the pilot effort.
Overfished
West Coast rockfish stocks became overfished in the 1990s. The harvest restrictions needed to support rebuilding of the stocks devastated the groundfish fleet and coastal communities that depended on these stocks.
In 2011, NOAA Fisheries, with the Pacific Fishery Management Council, switched the fishery to 'catch share management', freeing fishermen from competing to catch the most fish. This resulted in a substantial reduction in discarded catch and led to the full rebuilding of several groundfish species.
Exempted from regulations
That in turn made some regulations designed to protect the reduced stocks unnecessary. It was therefore proposed to create an exempted fishing permit (EFP) to release some fishermen from some of those regulations on a trial basis.
NOAA Fisheries applied the findings from the EFP to permanently revise the trawl gear regulations at the start of the 2019 fishing year. Other results of the EFP will inform future changes in regulations.
