Commercial Rockfishing Banned Off California

In an emergency action, federal officials Thursday ordered a halt to commercial fishing off much of the California coast beginning July 1 for varieties of rockfish commonly sold as red snapper, including one type so overfished it may take 90 years to recover.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council also requested that California officials extend the ban to recreational fishermen as soon as possible--which probably means early July.

The emergency actions are just the beginning of what federal officials are proposing as an indefinite closure of the continental shelf off California, Oregon and Washington to bottom fishing starting in January. The shelf encompasses the relatively shallow areas that extend as far as 40 miles from shore and that are home to 83 types of bottom-dwelling rockfish and related species.

“We’re essentially making the shelf off California into one giant marine reserve,” said L.B. Boydstun, a state Department of Fish and Game official who sits on the fisheries council. “We had hoped to wait until January, but it was clear we had to act now.”

The impending closures could put hundreds of bottom trawlers and long-line fishermen out of business and deal a heavy blow to charter sportfishing fleets.

California’s annual commercial fishing harvest is valued at about $550 million, the fifth-largest in the nation, according to the state Department of Fish and Game.

Recreational fishing adds $246 million, the council reported, although recreational fishermen say their contribution to the state’s economy is much higher. The rockfish catch accounts for about 20% of the overall commercial harvest.

Government officials pointed out that there are other fish populations that will remain untouched by the new rules. Most of California’s most profitable catches--squid, crab, sea urchin, swordfish, tuna, sardines and anchovies--are not likely to be affected by the closures.

Fishermen were nonetheless stunned by the ban, which follows years of little or no government intervention to halt the steady decline in rockfish.

“We’ve had 30 years of no management, and suddenly to have these draconian changes is awful,” said Fred Benko, a longtime Santa Barbara fishermen and whale-watching boat captain. “To throw all these guys out of work is going to decimate local communities like Crescent City, Morro Bay, Bodega Bay and Eureka.”

Behind the sweeping action is a reluctant realization that the vast ocean has limits and cannot, as was long believed, provide an inexhaustible supply of fish.

That concern was underscored in the latest population estimates showing that rockfish numbers continue to plummet despite existing catch limits and other attempts to rein in excessive harvests.

U.S. officials said tough federal laws and a series of courtroom victories by environmentalists forced them to take bold steps to stop the fish from being pushed toward extinction.

Of 16 types of rockfish fully assessed, biologists determined that nine suffer from excessive harvesting.

The population of one rockfish species called bocaccio, once a staple of fish markets in Southern and Central California, has plummeted by 95%. Its numbers have fallen so low that the National Marine Fisheries Service is considering adding bocaccio to the endangered species list.

Even if all fishing of bocaccio is halted, including those caught accidentally, biologists predict it will take 90 years or more for the species to recover.

The Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 requires federal officials to take measures deemed necessary for fish populations to recover, prompting the California closure.

North of Cape Mendocino, the fisheries council enacted a more modest emergency closure on Thursday to protect the darkblotched rockfish, which favors deeper waters just beyond the continental shelf.

The broader closures proposed for next year are meant to cover the waters off Northern California, Oregon and Washington to protect the canary and yelloweye rockfish. Those species have been depleted to 8% of their former abundance.

Although scientists continue to work the numbers, their best estimates are that it will take 55 years for the canary rockfish numbers to rebound and up to 208 years for yelloweye.

The fate of the West Coast rockfish, declared a federal “disaster” two years ago, has many parallels to the collapse of New England’s famous cod population.

In 1994, federal officials were forced to step in and close 6,000 square miles of Georges Bank, once one of the world’s richest fishing grounds.

Yet the New England closure is small compared to what is unfolding along the West Coast.

With all of the proposed closures, the Pacific Fishery Management Council is moving toward shutting down about 20,000 square miles off the West Coast. Final action on that ban is set for September. All council decisions must be ratified by the National Marine Fisheries Service, a legal step that has become pro forma.

Fishermen, who have been focused on battling state proposals for a 490-square-mile marine reserve around the Santa Barbara Channel Islands, were shellshocked by the scope of the council’s proposals.

They fought back with familiar arguments Thursday, questioning the credibility of the fish population estimates. Many fishermen said they see plenty of bocaccio, as many as they’ve seen in years. Others concede that they rarely see or catch bocaccio but say that, when they do, they are careful to throw them back.

The vast majority of fishermen have argued for a narrowing of the closure to areas deeper than 120 feet, instead of 60 feet, as initially proposed. The extra depth widens the area open to bottom fishing.

“There are 25 sportfishing boats in the Channel Islands area, and 90% are going to be pushed out of business,” said John Fuqua of Cisco’s Sportfishing in Oxnard.

Fuqua and others who manage charter boats for recreational fishermen may be able to eke out a living if permitted to fish as deep as 120 feet, he said.

The council initially picked 60 feet as the limit because biologists have found that bocaccio pulled from deeper water and thrown back have far less chance of survival.

Bocaccio, like many other rockfish, have air-filled swim bladders that expand when raised from crushing pressures of the deep, either killing them or making it impossible for them to swim back down.

Rockfish are particularly long-living fish that spawn relatively late in life. Bocaccio can live to be 50 years old, and don’t begin to reproduce until they are 5. As they grow older and larger, the females produce far more eggs. But too many are caught before they reach reproductive age.

Furthermore, conditions need to be just right--with cold, plankton-rich waters--for bocaccio to have a successful spawning year. That tends to happen only about once a decade, said UC Santa Barbara rockfish expert Milton Love. The last time was in 1999.

Most bocaccio are now caught by recreational fishermen, federal and state officials said. Rockfish have become a favorite standby of charter and private fishing boats when the “glamour fish” such as salmon, albacore or barracuda are not biting.

Economists who study the fishing industry understand there will be an economic toll. Precisely what that will be is far from certain. Many of the 1,200 to 1,800 commercial fishing boats in California, Oregon and Washington that go after rockfish and cod will have to seek out other fish or go out of business.

Yet economists contend that the closures may only hasten the inevitable. Every month, more of these fishermen go bankrupt, failing to balance income from ever-shrinking catches with payments on their boats.