2002 Groundfish Regulations Archives

The 2002 season, like the 2003 season, was driven by the need to rebuild certain overfished stocks of rockfish: bocaccio, darkblotched, canary, and yelloweye rockfish.  Federal law (the Magnuson-Stevens Act) requires that these overfished stocks be rebuilt within a certain timeframe.

The 2002 inseason changes were put into place because the harvest limit for bocaccio was reached earlier than expected (mainly by the recreational fishery), and managers wanted to avoid reaching the harvest limit for darkblotched rockfish too early. The regulations are designed to prevent both the targeted harvest and the incidental harvest (bycatch) of bocaccio.

Commercial trawl landings of darkblotched rockfish were expected to meet or exceed the target harvest level by the end of the year.  Inseason changes to trawl fisheries north of Cape Mendocino (40° 10' N. latitude) were designed to keep that fishery from having to close early this year.

• National Marine Fisheries Service correction to groundfish trip limits, effective July 25
• News release on inseason adustments from California Department of Fish & Game
• “New information on West Coast groundfish may lead to significant cuts in several fisheries” (An early report on the inseason adjustments)
• Avoid yelloweye rockfish!  (Describes a voluntary closure in Washington state waters, and provides background on yelloweye.)

PFMC
04/02/03