Management Challenges in Rebuilding West Coast Rockfish

Ten west coast groundfish species have been declared overfished since the passage of the Sustainable Fisheries Act in 1996, which amended the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act (MSA) by adding more stringent conservation measures. Two species, Pacific whiting and lingcod, have been successfully rebuilt.  Of the eight remaining overfished species, seven are rockfish species with life history characteristics and distributions that pose a particular challenge to achieving the dual MSA mandates of providing economic benefits to the Nation from fishing while conserving vital marine resources.  Further, the MSA mandates that overfished stocks need to be rebuilt in as short a time as possible while taking into account the status and biology of the overfished stock, the needs of fishing communities, and the interaction of the overfished stock within the marine ecosystem.  Rockfish species exhibit some of the most extreme life history characteristics found among marine fishes (e.g., extreme longevity, late maturation, slow growth, and some have highly episodic recruitment).  The pace of development of west coast groundfish fisheries after the 1976 passage of the MSA preceded the evolution of a basic understanding of rockfish dynamics.  Therefore, many rockfish species were harvested at unsustainably high rates, leading to stock depletion and very long expected rebuilding times for some of these stocks, even in the absence of fishing.  The west coast groundfish fishery has been dramatically restructured in the last ten years to significantly reduce mortality of overfished rockfish and rebuild the stocks.   Management measures such as depth-based area closures (termed Rockfish Conservation Areas); gear restrictions; reduced bag limits, and seasonal fishery closures have been implemented to achieve rebuilding objectives while attempting to provide recreational fishermen with access to healthy groundfish stocks.  This paper provides an overview of the current status of the four overfished rockfish species (i.e., bocaccio, canary rockfish, cowcod, and yelloweye rockfish) that are important to the west coast marine recreational fishery and their respective rebuilding plans developed to achieve MSA objectives.  The management challenges associated with rebuilding overfished west coast rockfish species are underscored by the need to provide better science informing rockfish dynamics and distribution, and the need to develop more selective and economically viable recreational fisheries on the west coast.