Plug pulled on rockfish season

In a move sure to raise the ire of fishermen, the Pacific Fishery Management Council last week voted to close shore- and ocean-based recreational fishing for groundfish in federal waters off California.

The emergency closure, designed to protect overfished stocks of lingcod and canary rockfish, will go into effect Nov. 21. The rockfish season was supposed to last through December, but data suggest that harvest limits for those species have already been met.

As a result of the action, the California Department of Fish and Game has announced it will close, on the same date, fisheries for near-shore and shelf rockfish, sculpin and lingcod in state waters. Frustrated leaders of fishing groups claim the data -- based largely on projections from catches made early in the season -- are flawed and inaccurate. The council and Fish and Game maintain that their actions are based on the best available science. Still, the state plans to launch the California Recreational Fisheries Survey beginning Jan. 1, in an effort to gain more accurate data. “There is need for improvement,” Fish and Game spokeswoman Chamois Andersen said.

-- Pete Thomas