fish notes 3

• Most productive demersal group


  • Cod fishes (gadoids): cod, haddock, hake, pollock, saithe, whiting
  • Rock fishes: Sebastes around 65 species, yelloweye rockfish is red snapper
  • Flatfishes: flounders, halibuts, soles
• US groundfish gear


  • COMMERCIALLY bottom trawl , longline gear (halibut), trap gear (sablefish), gillnets
  • RECREATIONALLY harvested by hook and line gear
• Northeast US groundfish: 1960s- early 70s first major decline due to growth of foreign and domestic fleets. 1970s brief recovery - restrictions on harvest, 1976 Magnuson Act which prohibited foreign fishing in the newly expanded territorial waters (from 12 miles to 200 miles, our EEZ zone). In the 1980s second major decline due to growth in domestic (U.S. fleet), 1990s the principal stocks reached historic low levels of abundance
• Georges Bank has the traditionally important species of gadoids: haddock, Atlantic cod, pollock. Flatfishes: yellowtail, winter and summer flounders. In the 1960s-1990s heavy exploitation , major decline in commercial Mstocks. In the 60s they would catch 80% majority cods and flatfishes, in 1989 2o% cods/flatfishes
• Georges Bank - in the 1990s the species composition of the catch had changed but the weight had not: more dogfish and skates as "replacement" for cod and flounder that had been removed. This is possible because dogfish/cod-like fishes and flounders/skates have an overlap in their diet. Reduced fishing effort in 1993 but no response; overfished and overfishing is occurring
• Atlantic Cod in Newfoundland: moratorium on cod fishing in Atlantic waters in 1992, Newfoundland cod stock declared endangered, still not recovered. Issues with ecosystem such as an increase in herring which eat cod eggs, and fishing capelin (a food of cod)
• Pacific US groundfish: 80 species of ground fish: California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska. 55 species of rockfish. Currently harvested at the highest sustainable level - boccaccio and pacific ocean perch recovered as of 2017. 12 species of flatfishes (over 75% comes from Alaska)
• Pacific US groundfish: mid water trawl fishery for Pacific whiting (hake), 10x greater than any other US pacific coast groundfish fishery South of Alaska. Hake fishery used to be a joint venture fishery where US harvesters sold their catch directly to foreign processing vessels. Now its either shore based vessels, catcher boats delivering to mothership processors or catcher processors but transboundary stocks between US and Canada, Pacific Whiting Treaty signed in 2003 implemented in 2012
• Pacific US groundfish: Pacific halibut - largest flatfish in world, found offshore along continental shelf edge. Overexploited by 1940s, rebuilt through management measures including closed areas, seasons, size limits, gear restrictions, quotas. Still vulnerable to climate change impacts
• Pacific US groundfish: Dungeness crab - most valuable shellfish fishery in PNW, 1990s collapse attributed to warming oceans causing changes in distribution and availability of prey. Fisheries managers responded by reducing fishing mortality rates, increasing monitoring efforts, implementing new gear restrictions, and changing seasonal closures.