Reducing Bycatch in Oregon's Recreational Groundfish Fishery: Experimental Results with Angling Gear Configured to Increase Bait Height Above Bottom, Information Reports 2008-03

Identification Information

Citation

Originator: Hannah, R., T. Buell, and M. Blume

Publish Date: August 2008

Online Link: None

BPA Project #:

Contact Information

Agency: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife

Name: Cedric Cooney

Job Position: Natural Resources Data and Systems Manager

Telephone: 503-947-6094

E-Mail Address: cedric.x.cooney@odfw.oregon.gov

Description

Abstract: Several long-lived, late-maturing rockfish (Sebastes) species found off the U.S. west coast have been seriously depleted by overfishing and are managed under long-term rebuilding plans that greatly restrict fishery impacts (PFMC 2006). Two of these species, canary rockfish (Sebastes pinniger) and yelloweye rockfish (S. ruberrimus), are caught in waters off Oregon and Washington as bycatch in recreational fisheries directed at black rockfish (S. melanops), yellowtail rockfish (S. flavidus), lingcod (Ophiodon elongatus) and Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis). Recreational fishery impacts on the depleted species are constrained primarily via seasonal restrictions on the maximum depth of fishing, area closures and a ban on retention (PFMC 2006). However, needed future reductions in allowable impacts on either species could lead to more severe fishery restrictions, including bag limit reductions and seasonal or area closures (PFMC 2006). If angling gears can be developed that capture the target species effectively but are inefficient for these two bycatch species, then bag limit reductions or closures of the recreational groundfish fishery could be avoided. The nearshore recreational fishery targeting black and blue rockfish (Sebastes mystinus) also captures several rockfish species which have not been the subject of formal stock assessments. A few of these rockfish species are long-lived and considered to be more vulnerable to overfishing than black rockfish. For example, china rockfish (Sebastes nebulosus) live to at least age 78 and tiger rockfish (S. nigrocinctus) to at least age 116 (Munk 2001). Harvest strategies that are acceptable for black and blue rockfish may result in overfishing of these sympatric rockfish species. Many of these unassessed, but vulnerable, rockfish species are also species that are most closely associated with the seafloor (Love et al. 2002). Conversely, many of the target species of the recreational fishery are more semi-pelagic in their vertical distribution, in that they are frequently found at some distance above the seafloor (Love et al. 2002). Gear-based methods that maintain catch rates for semi-pelagic rockfishes but reduce rates for more demersally oriented rockfish could therefore also be helpful in successful mixed-stock management of nearshore fisheries. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that angling gear that keeps baits farther above the bottom would reduce the relative catch rates of yelloweye, canary and several demersal rockfishes, while maintaining acceptable catch rates for the semipelagic rockfish species most commonly caught off Oregon. In this report, we use the term “semi-pelagic” to specifically refer to black, blue, yellowtail, widow and redstripe rockfish (S. proriger). We use the term “demersal” to refer to rockfishes that are believed to live in close association with rocky substrate, specifically yelloweye, china (S. nebulosus), quillback (S. maliger), greenstriped (S. elongatus) and rosethorn (S. helvomaculatus) rockfishes.

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Geographic Extent: Oregon and Washington Coast

Status: Final

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Format: PDF File

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