Trials and Tribulations Managing Washington's “Trial” Hagfish Commercial Fishery

Opened in 2005 under developmental regulations, the Washington hagfish fishery is small in scale yet captures attention due its “last frontier” character.  This coastal fishery produces and exports hagfish for both the frozen and live-fish food markets in Korea.  Management of the Washington trial hagfish fishery is challenged by a lack of life history information, partial controls, high participant turnover and limitations on agency resources to address these issues.  Fishery monitoring through logbooks, fish receiving tickets and dockside sampling of catch comprise the greater part of management activity.  Recent analyses of biological and logbook data collected since the fishery’s inception are summarized, and evaluated to identify improvements and next-steps in the monitoring program.  These findings are also examined to guide further discussion and exploration of alternative regulatory approaches.