Recreational Coastal Bottomfish in Washington Fishing Rules Change Prohibit Recreational Fishing for Rockfish and Lingcod Seaward of 20 fathoms in Marine Areas 3 and 4. Read notice April 24, 2006 Emergency Rules for saltwater fishing The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife held a recreational bottomfish meeting on December 8, 2005, at the Department’s office in Montesano. Purpose of the Meeting To review:  1) current management approaches for the coastal recreational bottomfish fisheries; 2) the results of recent stock assessments for canary rockfish, yelloweye rockfish, and lingcod; and 3) 2004 and 2005 catch data by port area, month, and trip type, and to develop management alternatives for the 2006, 2007, and 2008 Washington coastal recreational bottomfish fisheries.  It was recommended that 2006 management measures be finalized at the next meeting, and that development of a suite of management measures for 2007-08 occur over three meetings. Biennial Management Process Beginning in 2005, the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted a biennial management process for groundfish.  In order to meet the requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the two-year management cycle begins in November with the adoption of acceptable biological catches (ABCs) and optimum yields (OYs), based on the results of stock assessments and the application of the Council’s precautionary harvest policies.  The OYs, which are treated as annual quotas, are mostly applied on a coastwide basis.  However, as there are many fisheries, which affect many different groundfish stocks, some of the more constraining stocks, such as canary and yelloweye rockfish, have harvest guidelines and/or harvest targets for one or more fisheries (which are subsets of the overall coastwide quota). Overfished Stocks There are seven overfished rockfish stocks managed by the Pacific Council:  bocaccio (off California), canary, cowcod (off California), darkblotched, Pacific ocean perch, widow, and yelloweye.  Overfished means that information in the stock assessment indicates that the status of the stock is less than 25% of its unfished spawning biomass.  The Pacific Council has adopted rebuilding plans for all of these stocks and a stock is deemed “rebuilt” when the status indicates that it is at 40% of its unfished spawning biomass.  For some of these more depleted long-lived rockfish stocks, the rebuilding schedule exceeds 50 years. 2005-2006 Harvest Guidelines and Harvest Targets In 2005 and 2006, the Washington recreational fishery has harvest targets for canary and yelloweye rockfish, and shares joint harvest guidelines with Oregon for these species:   WA Target OR Target Joint HG Canary 1.7 mt 6.8 mt 8.5 mt Yelloweye 3.5 mt 3.2 mt 6.7 mt In 2005, the Washington recreational fishery harvested 1.7 mt of canary (same as the harvest target), and 5.1 mt of yelloweye (1.6 mt over the target).  Pre-season, we had applied a 100% discard mortality rate for all canary rockfish caught and discarded; however, based on information from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, we made a decision inseason to  apply a 66% mortality rate for canary caught on non-halibut trips, which is consistent with Oregon’s approach.  Note:  the 100% mortality rate is still applied to canary caught on halibut trips and all yelloweye caught, regardless of trip type.  Yelloweye rockfish tend to live at deeper depths (whereas canary rockfish move within the water column) and, based on available information, are more susceptible to mortality when brought to the surface from those deeper depths.  The application of a 100% mortality rate for yelloweye is consistent among all three West Coast states. Recreational data are available at the end of the month following the month of fishing (i.e., data for June are available at the end of July).  Therefore, at the end of July, the data indicated that, through June, the Washington sport fishery had caught over 1.0 mt of canary and 2.7 mt of yelloweye.  In an attempt to keep the fishery within the harvest targets described above, the Department adopted an emergency rule, effective August 5, to restrict the bottomfish and halibut fisheries to an area shallower than 30 fms.  This area was outlined by a series of waypoints that approximates the 30-fm depth contour along the coast.  At the time, we anticipated that this action would significantly reduce the canary and yelloweye rockfish harvest, however, the catch of yelloweye in July was over 1.3 mt and there was an additional metric ton caught after the 30-fm restriction went into effect.  Therefore, in order to stay within the Washington harvest target in 2006, additional regulations need to be considered. Recent Stock Assessments and 2007-2008 Management In 2005, there were 23 new stock assessments produced—for the most part, these stocks had been assessed previously, but there were also a few new stocks being assessed.  For those overfished stocks, we are analyzing a range of OY alternatives, which would achieve rebuilding under different time schedules.  This range of OYs will include rebuilding in as short a time as possible (i.e., in the absence of fishing) in response to a recent decision by the 9th Circuit Court. If the current rebuilding schedule for canary were maintained, an OY of 43 mt (down from 47 mt in 2006) would apply in 2007 and 2008—this is the Council’s preferred alternative.  Therefore, more restrictive measures may have to be in place to address this slightly reduced OY. For yelloweye, under the latest stock assessment, if the current rebuilding schedule were maintained, an OY of 17 mt (down from 27 mt in 2006) would apply in 2007 and 2008.  However, there was some confusion regarding whether yelloweye was to be an update or a full assessment, and a report from the Stock Assessment and Review (STAR) panel was not available for the Council’s November meeting.  Therefore, the Pacific Council requested that the Department consider drafting a new assessment for yelloweye.  We have indicated that we will do another assessment over the winter for consideration by the Council in March.  This new assessment will be a full assessment, which allows for the consideration of new data sources, and will be conducted using a simpler stock synthesis model, as there was difficulty with getting the previous, more complex, model to converge.  However, pending the results of the new assessment, more restrictive measures may have to be in place to address a reduction (which may be as much as 10 mt) of the OY for yelloweye. Preliminary List of Management Alternatives The group reviewed a preliminary list of management alternatives for 2006, 2007 and 2008, and approved the attached list for broader review by the public.  In addition, the Westport Charterboat Association produced a list of alternatives for Marine Area 2 (also attached) for 2006, and 2007-08 for consideration. Next Steps The next meeting has been scheduled for January 11, 2006, at 9:30 a.m., at the Department’s office in Montesano.  Meeting topics will include finalizing the 2006 management measures and further discussion of the proposals for 2007-08.