Amendment 37: Identification of Groundfish in Need of Conservation and Management and Defining their Stocks 

In this action, the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) evaluated groundfish currently managed in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) to identify and define stocks in need of conservation and management in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). As part of this larger action, the Council considered three action alternatives. Alternative 1 would identify species as in need of conservation and management in the EEZ. Alternative 2 would identify species as not in need of conservation and management in the EEZ and remove the species from the FMP. Alternative 3 would identify species as not in need of conservation and management in the EEZ and classify the species as an ecosystem component species in the FMP. This decision is specific to the species adopted under Alternative 1.

The Council evaluated the need for conservation and management in the EEZ for all 86 managed groundfish species in March of 2025. Their preliminary preferred alternative (PPA) was to adopt Alternative 1 for 44 species and to adopt stock units options for these species, i.e., geographic delineations, within the jurisdiction of the FMP.  For the remaining 42 species, the Council directed staff to analyze those species under the 10 Factor analysis as found at §600.305(c). That analysis can be found in the June and September 2025 briefing books.

This Action identified 49 stocks for 48 groundfish species as in need of conservation and management in the EEZ. Amendments 31 and 35 defined 22 stock units for 21 species, which were not changed as part of this action. Amendment 37 defined 27 stocks for the 27 species. Of these, only two lingcod and yellowtail rockfish were defined to have two stocks each, as was defined in Amendment 31 and Amendment 35, respectively. The remaining 43 species are single area unit stocks, per delineation in Amendment 37 or prior delineation as a part of or Amendments 31 or 35.

Specifically, Amendment 37: 

1. Identifies aurora, bank, blackgill, bocaccio, cowcod, darkblotched, greenspotted, greenstriped, Pacific ocean perch, rosethorn, redstripe, sharpchin, shortraker, silvergray, splitnose, starry, stripetail, yellowmouth rockfishes; arrowtooth flounder, Pacific sanddab, flathead sole; big and longnose skates, California scorpionfish, longspine thornyhead, Pacific cod, and Pacific hake as in need of conservation and management in the EEZ and defines the stock units of these species. 
2. Identifies black (North of 42° N lat.), canary, chilipepper, quillback (North of 42° N lat.), redbanded, rougheye/blackspotted, squarespot, sunset, vermilion, widow, yelloweye, and yellowtail rockfishes; Dover, English, petrale, and rex soles; lingcod, Pacific spiny dogfish, sablefish, and shortspine thornyhead were identified as in need of conservation and management in the EEZ. Stocks of these species were defined under either Amendment 31 or Amendment 35. 

Stocks managed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council.  

Stock	Stock Delineation(s)	Stock	Stock Delineation(s)
Arrowtooth flounder	Coastwide	Pacific spiny dogfish	Coastwide
Aurora rockfish	Coastwide	Petrale sole	Coastwide
Bank rockfish	Coastwide	Quillback rockfish	Washington-only
Big skate	Coastwide	Redbanded rockfish	Coastwide
Black rockfish	Washington-only	Redstripe rockfish	Coastwide
Blackgill rockfish	Coastwide	Rex sole	Coastwide
Bocaccio rockfish	Coastwide	Rosethorn rockfish	Coastwide
California scorpionfish	California-only	Rougheye/Blackspotted rockfish	Coastwide
Canary rockfish	Coastwide	Sablefish	Coastwide
Chilipepper rockfish	Coastwide	Sharpchin rockfish	Coastwide
Cowcod	California-only	Shortraker rockfish	Coastwide
Darkblotched rockfish	Coastwide	Shortspine thornyhead	Coastwide
Dover sole	Coastwide	Silvergray rockfish	Coastwide
English sole	Coastwide	Splitnose rockfish	Coastwide
Flathead sole	Coastwide	Squarespot rockfish	Coastwide
Greenspotted rockfish	Coastwide	Starry rockfish	California-only
Greenstriped rockfish	Coastwide	Stripetail rockfish	Coastwide
Lingcod	N of 40°10 N. lat.	Vermilion/sunset rockfish	North of 42°N. lat.
Lingcod	S of 40°10 N. lat.	Sunset rockfish	South of 42°N. lat.
Longnose skate	Coastwide	Widow rockfish	Coastwide
Longspine thornyhead	Coastwide	Yelloweye rockfish	Coastwide
Pacific cod	Coastwide	Yellowmouth rockfish	Coastwide
Pacific hake	Coastwide	Yellowtail rockfish	N a of 40°10 N. lat.
Pacific ocean perch	Coastwide	Yellowtail rockfish	S of 40°10 N. lat.
Pacific sanddab	Coastwide

Analysis to Support Amendment 37