Latest Fish Plan: Quotas

In a compromise move to give some relief to the beleaguered West Coast fishing industry, a federal regulatory council Tuesday proposed replacing a current ban on commercial fishing with strict new quotas along the Southern California continental shelf.

The quotas, to take effect beginning next year, are subject to final review by the U.S. Commerce Department, which is expected to approve them.

The strictest quota--for bocaccio, a popular but severely depleted rockfish species--was cut to 20 tons, down 80% from a year ago. The change is intended to allow incidental harvest, or “by-catch,” of bocaccio by fishermen who are targeting other fish.

The Pacific Fisheries Management Council, the regional body that regulates Pacific Coast fishing, also recommended severe cuts in 2003 quotas for several other fish types and called for increased surveillance to ensure that the limits are enforced.

New rules, effective this week, will allow coastal commercial fishing to restart immediately in Northern California, Oregon and Washington, but with depth restrictions on where fish can be taken by trawlers.

The changes could provide some breathing room for the fishing industry, which, because of alarm over declining supplies of bocaccio and dark-blotched rockfish, has been barred from the continental shelf in Southern California since July and north of Cape Mendocino since Sept. 1.

The ban marked the first time the entire West Coast shelf has been closed to commercial fishing since federal regulation of the industry began in 1976, according to council officials.

Last year, California fishermen reached the annual 100-ton bocaccio limit by June, triggering the July 1 prohibition against shelf fishing.

Environmental groups attending the Portland meeting were skeptical that by-catch totals could be limited to 20 tons because of inaccurate counts. Conservation groups also believe that a zero catch limit on the fish is necessary to rebuild the population, a process that still could take more than a century.

“This proposal will not protect bocaccio adequately and is contrary to the requirements of the Magnuson-Stevens Act to rebuild overfished species,” said Mark Powell of Ocean Conservancy, a Washington, D.C.-based conservation organization. The 1976 Magnuson Act established fishing regulations under the jurisdiction of the Commerce Department.

In his testimony before the council on Tuesday, Bill Robinson, an official of the National Marine Fisheries Service, admitted that setting the 20-ton limit required a creative reinterpretation of the law, which requires that quotas be set based on the estimated recovery of the fish population over 10 years. Because bocaccio have long life spans and low fertility rates, scientists estimate it could take from 100 to 300 years for the fish population to recover.

Peter Huhtala, program director for the Oregon-based Pacific Marine Conservation Council, which represents fishermen as well as some environmentalists, characterized the Pacific Fisheries Management Council’s proposals for California bocaccio Tuesday as a concession to the state’s $4.5-billion recreational fishing industry. About 60% of bocaccio are caught by recreational fishermen in Southern California.

“The consequences of closing recreational fishing are too onerous for them,” Huhtala said.

The opening day of hearings at the annual meeting of the council, held in a packed Doubletree Hotel ballroom overlooking the Columbia River in Portland, also featured public testimony from fishermen and their families that included tales of economic ruin caused by federal regulations.

Many of the fishermen disputed the scientific data leading up to the current ban.

“The scientists are way ... off base,” said John Fuqua, 30, a charter fishing captain from Oxnard. “There’s more bocaccio out there than I’ve ever seen in my life. Twenty metric tons of bocaccio is not going to do anything. It might as well be zero.”

The council announced Tuesday that regulations would be relaxed north of Cape Mendocino, allowing fishermen to go back to work, at least temporarily.

However, in a move that many see as a signal of the future of regulation on the coast, the new council rules created a conservation area, closing waters from 100 to 250 fathoms, where most of the dark-blotched rockfish are found, to commercial trawlers. The rules immediately reopened fishing grounds outside 250 fathoms. The area inside 100 fathoms will reopen Oct. 1.

“Today’s action,” said Commerce Department fisheries Director Bill Hogarth, “provides a solution to overfishing by ensuring that dark-blotched rockfish remain on target with its rebuilding effort while minimizing economic hardship to fishermen.”