2020 Harvest Specifications for Cowcod and Shortbelly Rockfish

The proposed actions are to 1) eliminate the 2020 annual catch target (ACT) for cowcod (Sebastes levis) south of 40°10’ N lat. with a potential adjustment to the set-aside or off-the-top deduction from the ACL, and 2) increase the 2020 annual catch limit (ACL) of shortbelly rockfish (S. jordani) to avoid negative socioeconomic impacts to the West Coast groundfish fishery.

Cowcod south of 40°10’ N lat. is one of two West Coast groundfish stocks currently managed under a rebuilding plan. Cowcod is also a quota species in the West Coast trawl catch share program with very small individual fishing quotas (IFQs) allocated to quota shareholders based on the sector’s allocation of the 2020 ACT of 6 metric ton (mt). As such, cowcod is a constraining species to California trawlers south of 40°10’ N lat. According to the 2019 stock assessment adopted by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) at their September 2019 meeting, cowcod has now attained a healthy and rebuilt status. As the stock has increased in abundance, incidental bycatch of cowcod has been increasingly difficult to avoid. Some LE groundfish trawlers south of 40°10’ N lat. are prematurely approaching their vessel limits of cowcod threatening their ability to prosecute their fishery. The Council is interested in providing some economic relief by raising or eliminating the ACT, with a possible reduction to the yield set-aside. These actions would increase the annual cowcod vessel limit for affected LE trawl fishery participants south of 40°10’ N lat.

Shortbelly rockfish is one of the most abundant rockfish species in the California Current and is not targeted in any West Coast fishery (Field et al. 2008). While shortbelly rockfish are most abundant along the continental shelf break between the northern end of Monterey Bay and Point Reyes, California and around the Channel Islands in the Southern California Bight (Love et al. 2002; Moser et al. 2000; Pearson et al. 1991a; Phillips 1964), they have increasingly been encountered and incidentally caught in midwater trawl fisheries in waters north of 40°10’ N lat. as far north as northern Washington. The observed magnitude of encounters of shortbelly rockfish north of 40°10’ N lat. in recent years is unprecedented and may be the result of a climate change-driven distributional shift and/or the effect of large recruitments. It appears both explanations are contributing factors given evidence of continued high recruitment and abundance in the core habitats off southern and central California. The shortbelly ACL of 500 mt was exceeded in 2018 and has been exceeded this year according to catches to date. The Council is interested in specifying a higher shortbelly ACL in 2020 than the 500 mt ACL in regulations to avoid premature closure of groundfish fisheries that incidentally take shortbelly rockfish.