News & Events: Groundfish

  • Groundfish Management Team to hold online meeting June 10, 2021

    The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene a webinar meeting of its Groundfish Management Team (GMT) to discuss items on the Pacific Council’s June 2021 meeting agenda.

  • Scientific and Statistical Committee’s Economics and Groundfish Subcommittees to hold online meeting May 26, 2021

    The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council) Scientific and Statistical Committee’s (SSC) Economics and Groundfish Subcommittees will hold a meeting to review a new Quota Share Owners’ Cost Survey to inform decisions on the west coast limited entry trawl catch shares program and to do some initial planning on an upcoming review of the limited…

  • Three Groundfish Stock Assessment Review Panels Scheduled to be Held Online

    The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene three Stock Assessment Review (STAR) Panels this year to review new stock assessments for Dover sole, spiny dogfish, lingcod, and vermilion and sunset rockfishes.  These STAR Panel meetings are open to the public, and will be held online. Dates and times of the STAR Panel meetings…

  • Request for Proposal – Sablefish Management Strategy Evaluation Facilitator

    Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) is soliciting proposals from a qualified person or group to facilitate a three-day webinar-based workshop scheduled for April 27-29, 2021 to solicit stakeholder recommendations for fishery objectives, performance metrics for assessing the attainment of fishery objectives, and alternative management strategies to be evaluated via a management strategy evaluation (MSE) of…

  • Pre-Assessment Workshop for Lingcod and Vermilion/Sunset Rockfishes to be held online March 29, 2021

    The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) and the National Marine Fisheries Service Northwest and Southwest Fisheries Science Centers will hold an online workshop to review data and analyses proposed to inform new assessments for lingcod and vermilion/sunset rockfishes scheduled to be conducted this year.  The workshop is open to the public.

  • Groundfish Management Team to hold online meeting March 26, 2021

    The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene a webinar meeting of its Groundfish Management Team (GMT) to discuss items on the Pacific Council’s April 2021 meeting agenda. This meeting is open to the public. The online meeting will be held Friday, March 26, 2021 from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

  • Fact Sheet: Salmon

    Salmon species The Council manages Chinook and coho salmon. In odd-numbered years, the Council may manage pink salmon near the Canadian border. Sockeye, chum, and steelhead are rarely caught in the Council’s ocean fisheries. Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) (“king” or “tyee”) are the largest and most highly prized of the Pacific salmon. Like all salmon,…

  • Fact Sheet: Trawl catch shares

    The Council has created two catch share programs in the limited entry nontribal commercial groundfish fishery: a fixed gear sablefish program implemented in 2002, and a trawl catch share program implemented in 2011.  This fact sheet focuses on the trawl catch share program. The trawl fishery makes up a large proportion of the groundfish fishery,…

  • Fact Sheet: Exempted fishing permits

    Exempted fishing permits (EFPs) allow for fishing activities that are exempt from the usual fishing regulations. They are a way for people and organizations involved in the fishery to experiment with new gears or techniques. The Council recommends EFPs to National Marine Fisheries Service, which is responsible for granting them. Examples of past projects supported…

  • Fact Sheet: Annual catch limits and other management thresholds

    The Magnuson-Stevens Act requires annual catch limits and other management thresholds for all actively managed stocks and stock complexes. The terms and reference points used in the Pacific Council’s harvest management frameworks are described below.  Common acronyms MSY      Maximum sustainable yield. A long-term average yield usually estimated in a stock assessment. OY         Optimum yield. Long-term…

  • Fact Sheet: Overfishing and rebuilding

    Currently the Council is rebuilding one groundfish stock: yelloweye rockfish. The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Management and Conservation Act, or MSA (the primary legislation that governs fishery management) requires that every Council end overfishing and rebuild overfished stocks. Therefore, if a Council-managed species is overfished or is being overfished, the Council must reduce catches to a level…

  • Fact Sheet: Groundfish

    The fish The Council’s Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) includes over 100 different species that, with a few exceptions, live on or near the bottom of the ocean. The FMP covers the following species: The fishery and gear Many different types of gear are used to target the wide variety of groundfish managed…

  • Council news: Rigorous management practices have led to successful rebuilding of several West Coast groundfish stocks

    Portland, Oregon—A new paper published in Nature Sustainability, “Identifying Management Actions that Promote Sustainable Fisheries,” demonstrates that rigorous management practices have helped rebuild depleted fish stocks worldwide and underscores the fact that greater investment in fisheries management generally leads to better outcomes for fish populations and the fisheries they support. The Pacific Fishery Management Council,…

  • Groundfish Advisory Subpanel to hold online meeting February 16, 2021

    The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council) Groundfish Advisory Subpanel (GAP) will hold an online meeting, which is open to the public.  The meeting will be held Tuesday, February 16, 2021, 9 a.m. to 12 p.m., Pacific Standard Time, or until business for each day is completed. Meeting materials GAP February 16, 2021 agenda Non-trawl…

  • Groundfish Management Team to hold online meeting February 17, 2021

    The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) will convene a webinar meeting of its Groundfish Management Team (GMT) to discuss items on the Pacific Council’s March 2021 meeting agenda. This meeting is open to the public. The online meeting will be held Wednesday, February 17, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time (PST).…

  • Pacific Council News Winter 2020: Groundfish

    Council directs analysis to focus on gear switching impacts The Council wants to better understand the impacts of limiting gear switching (the use of fixed gear in the trawl individual fishing quota fishery) in order to help identify the maximum level of gear switching that should be allowed. In November, the Council directed analysts to…

  • Washington submits draft plan to distribute Federal relief funding

    Washington State announced on December 8 that it has submitted a draft plan for how to distribute $50 million in Federal relief funding to members of Washington’s commercial seafood, shellfish and charter industries to NOAA Fisheries for review and approval. Under Section 12005 of the CARES Act, Congress provided $300 million to states to distribute…

  • Groundfish Management Team to hold online work session January 11-15, 2021

    The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s Groundfish Management Team (GMT) will hold a week-long work session that is open to the public. 

  • COVID-19 fisheries assistance

    NOTE: The Council does not administer fisheries assistance for COVID-19. Please see the links below for resources, or contact the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. Recent news California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife posts a CARES Act page for fisheries participants and communities (June 23) How CARES Act funds are allocated (May 14) The Midwater…

  • NOAA Fisheries announces emergency action to temporarily extend the primary sablefish fishery season

    Published in the Federal Register October 27, 2020: Emergency rule to temporarily extend the 2020 sablefish primary fishery from October 31, 2020 to December 31, 2020. This action is necessary to provide operational flexibility so that vessels in the sablefish primary fishery are able to fully harvest their tier limits despite high economic uncertainty in…

  • Request for comments: proposed rule for salmon bycatch minimization measures in the Pacific Coast groundfish fishery

    NOAA Fisheries announces a proposed rule to implement measures to minimize incidental take of Endangered Species Act-listed salmon by vessels in the Pacific coast groundfish fishery. The proposed rule will publish tomorrow, October 20, 2020 in the Federal Register. The pre-publication version of the proposed rule is available for public inspection. When the proposed rule publishes, it will…

  • NOAA requesting comments on proposed rule for 2021-2022 biennial specifications and management measures

    The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) published the proposed rule for the 2021-2022 biennial specifications and management measures, including Amendment 29 on October 2, 2020. The accompanying Environmental Assessment is provided here. This rule, if approved, would establish the harvest specifications and management measures for the next two years. These specifications and management measures were…

  • Groundfish Management Team to hold online meeting November 6, 2020

    The Pacific Fishery Management Council’s (Pacific Council) Groundfish Management Team (GMT) will hold an online meeting to discuss items on the Pacific Council’s November 2020 meeting agenda. 

  • Pre-Assessment Workshop to be held online October 26-27, 2020

    The Pacific Fishery Management Council (Pacific Council) and the NMFS Northwest Science Center will hold an online workshop to review data and analyses proposed to inform new assessments for Dover sole, copper rockfish, quillback rockfish, and squarespot scheduled to be conducted next year, which is open to the public.