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How can I help reduce rockfish mortalities? Rockfish mature late and are a long-lived fish (50 to 100 years depending on the species), so is important to fish conservatively. And once overfished it can take 50-80 years for the stock to recover. Here are a few steps you can take to lower rockfish mortalities while fishing. 1. Don’t release smaller rockfish that may not live so you can keep slightly larger ones. 2. If you have caught your limit of rockfish and want to keep fishing for something else, like lingcod, move to a location that doesn’t have much rockfish. Released rockfish have a very low survival rate. 3. Target your lingcod before targeting rockfish. Lingcod generally reside in the same areas as rockfish so by fishing for your lingcod first you have the opportunity to keep the rockfish you catch at this time. After you catch your lingcod, you can catch your remaining rockfish at your favorite pinnacle. 4. If you need to release a rockfish use a technique that enhances its chances of survival. You can learn how best to release rockfish at: Release Methods for Rockfish
While these actions
may not seem like much, the results can be significant. We sincerely appreciate
the effort, on the part of anglers and the recreational fishing community,
in trying to protect our valuable rockfish stock. |
