Groundfish Harvest Specifications and Management Measures for 2027-28 (Including Amendment 38):

The Council adopted its final preferred alternatives (FPA) for the 2027-28 harvest specifications and management measure action at their June 2026 meeting. This action also included Amendment 38 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) which removed the rebuilding plans for California quillback rockfish and yelloweye rockfish, as these stocks are now rebuilt.    

The Council initiated discussion on this process at their June 2025 meeting and took final action at their June 2026 meeting. The following is a brief summary of FPA for the 2027-28 biennium. The reference documents provide detailed analytical information which informed the Council in their decision-making process. For additional documents, please refer to the Council Meeting Briefing Books for June, September, and November of 2025 and March, April, and June of 2026. 

Harvest Specifications

The Council adopted default harvest control rules (HCRs) to calculate harvest specifications for all managed stocks and stock complexes, except for canary, rougheye/blackspotted, widow, and yellowtail (north of 40°10′ N. lat.) rockfishes; shortspine thornyhead, and petrale sole. TABLE shows the resulting ACLs for these stocks. Chapter 1 of Attachment 2 shows the harvest specifications for all other stocks and stock complexes. 

Table 1. Annual catch limits for stocks adopted under alternative harvest control rules (HCR)

Stock	HCR	ACLs
Canary Rockfish	ABC=ACL, P* 0.45,          no 40-10 adjustment	ACLs 643 mt (2027), 664 mt (2028)
Rougheye/ Blackspotted Rockfish	Constant ACL	2027-28 ACL = 300 mt Slope Complex N of 40°10′ N. lat.: 2027-28 ACL contributions = 294 mt Slope Complex S of 40°10′ N. lat.: 2027-28 ACL contribution = 6 mt
Widow Rockfish	OFL – 1	2027-28 ABC/ACL= 6,238
Yellowtail Rockfish   (north of 40°10′ N. lat.)	Phase-in	ACLs 5,050 mt (2027), 4,730 mt (2028)
Shortspine thornyhead	Constant ACL	2027-28 ACL  902 mt
Petrale Sole	Constant ACL	2027-28 ACL = 2,489 mt

Management Measures

The Council adopted their preliminary preferred alternative (PPA) as the FPA for routine management measures in the 2027-28 groundfish fisheries as recommended by the Groundfish Management Team (Supplemental GMT Report 1) and the GAP. (Supplemental GAP Report 1, June 2026). These measures are summarized below and follow the structure of the Action Item Checklist (Attachment 1). The following summarizes the Council’s decisions. The Council analysis details all of the items summarized below (Agenda Item E.6, Attachment 2, June 2026)

Area Management Modifications

The Council recommended removal of several Yelloweye Rockfish Conservation Areas (YRCAs) from regulations: Stonewall Bank Expansions 1 and 2, Point St. George, South Reef, Reading Rock, Point Delgada (North), and Point Delgada (South) YRCAs. Stonewall Bank Expansions 1 and 2 are also Pacific halibut YRCAs. This issue was acknowledged by the Council and will require concurrent changes to the Pacific halibut regulations. The Council adopted a measure to remove the 150 fm Non-Trawl Rockfish Conservation Area (RCA) boundary line around Lasuen Knoll and regulatory text modifications in the Federal non-trawl trip limit tables to reflect the RCA boundary. Additionally, the Council adopted as FPA a measure to modify the 20-fathom line in Washington Marine Area 4A.

Off-the-Top Decductions

The Council adopted a method to calculate  amounts for research and incidental open access set-asides for 2027-28 as described in Supplemental GAP Report 1 and Supplemental GMT Report 1. The Council adopted custom amounts for yelloweye rockfish and petrale sole research set-asides. There are no exempted fishing permit set-asides requested for 2027-28. The Council adopted the resultant fishery harvest guidelines (HGs), which are the annual catch limit minus the set-asides (see Appendix 2 of Supplemental GMT Report 1) The Council also adopted the Tribal set-asides as shown in Supplemental Tribal Report 1 as FPA. The Tribes reduced their set-aside requests from the 2025-26 biennium for canary rockfish, petrale sole, shortspine thornyhead, and widow rockfish.  in recognition of recent and projected mortality trends in Tribal fisheries. Respectively, these set-asides requests are 290 mt, 35 mt, 100 mt, and 40 m A 50 mt set-aside for sablefish north of 36° N. lat. was adopted by the Council for the recreational sector.

Annual Catch Target

The Council adopted the status quo recreational annual catch target (ACT) copper rockfish south of 34° 27′ N. lat. and non-trawl ACT for shortspine thornyhead north of 34° 27′ N. lat. (i.e., 25 percent of the non-trawl allocation) as FPA. The Council also adopted as FPA, recreational ACTs for California quillback rockfish (statewide), vermilion/sunset rockfish south of 40° 10′ N. lat., and lingcod south of 40° 10′ N. lat.

Amendment 21 and biennial Allocations

The Council adopted status quo two-year trawl and non-trawl allocations for all biennially allocated stocks and stock complexes (big skate, bocaccio south of 40° 10′ N. lat., cowcod south of 40° 10′ N. lat., lingcod south of 40° 10′ N. lat., longnose skate, petrale sole, shelf rockfish complex north of 40° 10′ N. lat., shelf rockfish complex south of 40° 10′ N. lat., shortspine thornyhead, widow rockfish), except for slope rockfish complex south of 40° 10′ N. lat as described in Supplemental GAP Report 1 and Supplemental GMT Report 1.

For the slope rockfish complex south of 40° 10′ N. lat, the Council considered four allocation options and ultimately adopted Option 4 as FPA. Option 4 adjusts the allocation by using five-year average of mortality to calculate blackgill rockfish and “other slope rockfish” (i.e., all other slope rockfish species excluding blackgill rockfish) share proportions (see Supplemental GMT Report 1 for detail).

The Council also adopted status quo non-trawl allocations for cowcod south of 40° 10′ N. lat. and bocaccio south of 40° 10′ N. lat. as described in Supplemental GAP Report 1 and Supplemental GMT Report 1.

The Council adopted the status quo trawl/non-trawl and within non-trawl allocation structures for canary and yelloweye rockfishes as FPA

Trawl: Individual Fishing Quota and Pacific Whiting At-Sea Fisheries

No changes were made to the trawl IFQ program or non-IFQ species trip limits. The Council adopted status quo set-asides for the at-sea whiting fishery, except 1) removed set-asides for Dover sole, lingcod north of 40°10′ N lat., longnose skate, and petrale sole, 2) increased set-asides for canary rockfish, and 2) reduced set-asides for sablefish north of 36° N. lat., widow rockfish, shortspine thornyhead, and yellowtail rockfish north of 40°10′ N. lat.  

Non-Trawl: Commercial

The Council adopted a suite of limited entry and open access fixed gear trip limit modifications detailed in Appendix 3 of Supplemental GMT Report 1 as their FPA. New for 2027-28 are trip limits for cowcod and yelloweye rockfish.

Recreational Fishery

Washington

The Council adopted the proposed Washington recreational fishery management measures as described in tables 14-1 and 14-9 of Attachment 2 and modifications to depth restrictions and canary and yelloweye rockfish sub-bag limits as detailed in described Supplemental WDFW Report 1.  

Oregon

The Council adopted Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s recommendation for Oregon’s groundfish recreational fishery as FPA, as shown in Supplemental ODFW Report 1, Table 2. ODFW’s 2027-28 recreational management measures include a sub-bag limit of five canary rockfish and one yelloweye rockfish. For California, the Council adopted PPA as FPA

California

The Council adopted the proposed California recreational fisher as recommended by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in CDFW Report 1 and described in Attachment 2 . Management measures includes sub-bag limit and specific seasons for cowcod and yelloweye rockfish.

Amendment 38

The Council adopted the draft Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP amendment language, which removes the rebuilding plans for yelloweye rockfish and California quillback rockfish from the text, and corrections to FMP table 3-2 as FPA. These revisions are detailed in Attachment 6.

Exempted Fishing Permits

The Council recommended implementation of West Coast Seafood Processors Association and Oregon Trawl Commission year-round trawl gear EFP (Supplemental Attachment 9) for the area north of 40° 10’ N lat. until expected future implementation into regulations and for the area south of 40° 10’ N lat. for the entire biennium. The Council also gave guidance to NMFS regarding including coho salmon threshold limits for the EFP south of 40° 10’ N lat. Additionally, the Council recommended implementation of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife fishery dependent biological data collection (Attachment 5).

Reference Files

Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery 2027-28 Harvest Specifications and Management Measures

Draft Socioeconomic Analyses for the 2027-28 Harvest Specifications and Management Measure