A Primer on Groundfish
The Fish
The groundfish covered by the Council’s groundfish fishery management plan (FMP) include over 82 different species that, with a few exceptions, live on or near the bottom of the ocean. These are made up of the following species:
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Rockfish. The plan covers 64 different species of rockfish, including widow, yellowtail, canary, shortbelly, and vermilion rockfish; bocaccio, chilipepper, cowcod, yelloweye, thornyheads, and Pacific Ocean perch.
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Flatfish. The plan covers 12 species of flatfish, including various soles, starry flounder, turbot, and sanddab.
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Roundfish. The six species of roundfish included in the fishery management plan are lingcod, cabezon, kelp greenling, Pacific cod, Pacific whiting (hake), and sablefish.
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Sharks and skates. The six species of sharks and skates are leopard shark, soupfin shark, spiny dogfish, big skate, California skate, and longnose skate.
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Other species. These include ratfish, finescale codling, and Pacific rattail grenadier.
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The Fishery and Gear
Since there is such a wide variety of groundfish, many different gear types are used to target them. While the trawl fishery harvests most groundfish, they can also be caught with troll, longline, hook and line, pots, gillnets, and other gear.
The West Coast groundfish fishery described in the FMP has four components:
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Limited entry. This component is comprised of fishers with limited entry permits. The limited entry program limits the number of vessels allowed to participate in a fishery. This sector is, in turn, divided into limited entry trawl (for those fishers using trawl gear such as bottom and pelagic trawl nets) and limited entry fixed gear
(for those fishers using fixed gear, such as longlines, traps or pots).
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Open access. This component of the groundfish fishery allocates a portion of the harvest to fishers targeting groundfish without limited entry permits, and fishers who target non-groundfish fisheries that incidentally catch groundfish. Trawl gear may not be used in the directed groundfish open access fishery. Trawl gears for target species such as pink shrimp, California halibut, ridgeback prawns, and sea cucumbers are exempted from this rule.
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Recreational. This component includes anglers targeting groundfish species and others who target non-groundfish species but who incidentally take groundfish.
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Tribal. This component is made up of tribal commercial fishers who have a federally recognized treaty right to fish in their “usual and accustomed” fishing areas. These tribes, all located in Washington state, include the Quinault, Hoh, Quileute, and Makah. Formal allocations to these tribes exist for sablefish, Pacific whiting, and black rockfish. Other groundfish species’ allocations for this sector are decided by annual Council action.
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The Management Context
Groundfish are managed through a number of measures including harvest guidelines, quotas, trip and landing limits, area restrictions, seasonal closures, and gear restrictions (such as minimum mesh size for nets and small trawl footrope requirements for landing shelf rockfish). All sectors of the groundfish fishery are constrained by the need to rebuild groundfish species that have been declared overfished. The Council is developing FMP amendments to incorporate rebuilding plans for these species. Because of the low biomass of some species, the overall groundfish harvest has been significantly reduced. This has led the Council to question the ability of the groundfish resource to support current levels of participation in the fishery. The Council’s Groundfish Fishery Strategic Plan, Transition to Sustainability, calls for sharp reductions in fleet capacity across all sectors of the commercial groundfish fishery in order to manage sustainable fisheries. The Plan's aim is to ensure that West Coast groundfish resources are fished sustainably while making the groundfish fleet more economically stable.
The Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan contains the rules for managing the groundfish fishery. It outlines the areas, species, regulations, and methods that the Council and the Federal government must follow to make changes to the fishery. The plan also creates guidelines for the annual process of setting harvest levels. As of May 2004, 17 amendments to the plan have been implemented. (This counts Amendment 16-1 and 16-2 as separate amendments). The two most important amendments were Amendment 4—a complete rewrite that replaced the original document—and Amendment 6, which set up a license limitation program for vessels taking the vast majority of the groundfish harvest. This program went into effect in 1994.
Below are three general processes used to regulate groundfish harvests. Since these processes can take up to six months, they may be streamlined for some decisions.
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The process for controversial or complex issues takes at least three Council meetings. Proposals for management measures may come from the public, from advisory groups, or from Council members. If the Council wants to pursue these proposals, it asks for other possible solutions to the problem being addressed and then directs the Groundfish Management Team and/or Council staff to prepare an analysis. At the next meeting, the Council reviews the analysis and chooses a range of alternatives and possibly a preferred alternative. The analysis is then made available for public review, and the Council makes a final decision at the next meeting.
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The biennial management process was recently implemented through Amendment 17 to the groundfish FMP. the Council adopted it at its November 2002 meeting and NMFS approved it on August 20, 2003; the final rule implementing regulations was published September 4, 2003 (68FR52519), with an effective date of October 6, 2003. Under this biennial cycle management measures are implemented for a two year period, rather than just for one year. Separate harvest specifications (ABCs and OYs) are identified for each year in the two-year period. This cycle provides more time for the Council and NMFS to work on other critical groundfish issues, and more time for public comment.
The first biennial cycle covers the 2005-2006 fishing years. A three-meeting process (November, April, and June) is being used to prepare biennial management measures:
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November: the Council decides on preliminary harvest levels and management measures
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April: the Council decides on final harvest levels, and refines management measures
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June: the Council decides on final management measures
The Council will be able to review fishing levels during the two-year management period in order to consider whether new science or assessment information should be used to alter harvest levels. Pacific whiting will contnue to be managed annually, with harvest levels set each year.
After considering Council recommendations and public comments, the National Marine Fisheries Service publishes the adopted regulations, thereby putting them into effect. For non-routine and annual management decisions, the National Marine Fisheries Service publishes a Federal Register notice and provides a public comment period before finalizing the recommendations.
The Groundfish Management Team is involved throughout the decision-making process. The team is made up of people from the three state fishery management agencies (Washington, Oregon, and California), National Marine Fisheries Service, and relevant tribes. Traditionally, the Team monitors catch rates, recommends harvest regulations and annual limits, and analyzes the impacts of various management measures. Team members present information to the Groundfish Advisory Subpanel and Council. Groundfish Management Team meetings are open to the public.
The Groundfish Advisory Subpanel advises the Council on policies that affect the groundfish fishery and the public. The panel includes commercial and recreational fishers, tribal representatives, charterboat owners and operators, fishing organization representatives, processors, environmental organization representatives, and a public at-large representative. Each major commercial gear group is represented. Meetings are held at most Council meetings. The Panel does not vote on issues, but operates by consensus and through majority and minority position statements that are offered as advice to the Council. Groundfish Advisory Subpanel meetingsare open to the public and public comment is generally accepted during the meetings.
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How Do I Get Involved?
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PFMC
05/25/07
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