Conservation Engineering Research in U.S. West Coast Groundfish Fisheries and the Initiation of a Catch Shares Program

Beginning in 2004, the NOAA Fisheries Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) initiated the development of a fisheries conservation engineering program within its Fishery Resource Analysis and Monitoring Division. Through key regional collaborations with the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Alaska Fisheries Science Center, and the fishing industry, the NWFSC has been able to pursue a wide-ranging array of conservation engineering projects relevant to reducing bycatch and habitat impacts from mobile fishing gear in the west coast groundfish trawl fishery. These projects include: 1) One of the first applications of Dual-frequency IDentification SONar (DIDSON) being used in mobile fishing gear – a bycatch reducing selective flatfish trawl, 2) Use of an open escape window bycatch reduction device (BRD) to reduce catch of Chinook salmon and rockfishes (Sebastes spp.) in the Pacific hake fishery , 3) Testing footrope modifications and rigid grates designed to reduce the bycatch of groundfish, megafaunal invertebrates and ESA-listed eulachon, and reduce physical impacts on benthic communities in the ocean shrimp trawl fishery, 4) Providing direct observation video camera systems to fishermen for their use in evaluating industry-designed BRDs (http://www.nwfsc.noaa.gov/research/divisions/fram/habitat.cfm), and 5) Developing and testing of a Pacific halibut excluder for use in the west coast groundfish bottom trawl fishery. The halibut excluder work is in response to the fishing industry’s rising concerns over IBQs (individual bycatch quotas) for halibut allocated in the Pacific coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Catch Share Program. The trawl rationalization program, started in January 2011, (through amendments to the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fisheries Management Plan) established formal annual catch limits (ACLs) and individual catch share quotas (http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/Groundfish-Halibut/Groundfish-Fishery-Management/Trawl-Program/Info-Docs.cfm). It has been projected that these complex fishery management measures will create increased demand for bycatch solutions in the groundfish fisheries. In addition to ACLs, fishing opportunities may also be limited by hard caps or individual bycatch quotas for non-groundfish species (e.g., Chinook salmon in the Pacific hake fishery). Bycatch of depleted stocks in the Pacific coast groundfish trawl fishery has the potential to constrain the fishery such that a substantial portion of available harvest may be left in the ocean.