Steady as she goes with the 2-fish vermilion bag limit
BY MERIT McCREA
SPOKANE, WA – At the most recent Pacific Fishery Management Council (Council) meeting many fisheries issues were discussed, reports drafted and read, public comment heard and decisions made. This is where the “sausage” of fisheries management is made for the West Coast’s federally managed fisheries. In addition to the Council, its several advisory bodies come together to craft suggestions for solutions to challenging problems that plague fisheries management. There are fisheries scientists who figure out how best to estimate harvest levels that provide the most fish in the long-run. There is another, made up of Department biologists from all three coastal states plus Council staff, who project what proposed management measures will result in as catch. This group is the Groundfish Management Team or GMT. There are other Advisory Bodies (ABs) made up of fisheries representatives from the various fleets that fish the West Coast – recreational anglers, charterboat skippers, trawler captains, commercial hook-and-line fishers. One AB does Coastal Pelagic fisheries, another – salmon, and so-on. The one of interest here is the Groundfish Advisory Sub-Panel known as the GAP. The whole Council operation meets 5 times per year in places among all 3 coastal states plus Idaho, which also has saltwater ocean fish in the form of salmon.
Recreational fishing representatives in the GAP, which includes this writer, asked the GMT to figure out if our vermilion catch was tracking low enough that we might bump the current 2-fish bag-limit to 3 per angler per day. The deal is these limits were established to keep the year’s catch close to but under a “reference point” which in this case is a 210 metric ton per year catch target.
It’s been a windy season out on the waters with the most reds. At the same time, when anglers had the chance, limits of reds came fast and then cramped skippers’ style once reached while they tried to find biting fish of other species.
There was one trip Capt. Jeff Markland on the Thunderbird reported boat limits in just 7-minutes!
The GMT took the challenge, knowing the chances were slim but also knowing the answer they found was important to the charter fleet and recreational anglers either way. If it worked we might be able to bump the limit the last three months of the year. If it didn’t we would know we weren’t leaving a bunch of reds un-caught for no reason.
Our catches from prior months were tracking low, but not quite low enough to chance bumping the bag limit to 3 fish. During the first 4 months of our 9 month season anglers caught an estimated 76.1 metric tons of reds. This relates to about 18.5% below the monthly average under that 210 mt target. However, August’s catch hadn’t hit the tally yet and it’s the busiest fishing month of the year. Plus we are about to launch into the 3-month deep-water only portion of the season down south with 2 months of the same up north.
Here is what the GMT’s report said.
“Recreational Vermilion/Sunset Rockfish Bag Limit South of 40° 10′ N. lat. The GMT received a request to increase the recreational sub-bag limit on vermilion/sunset rockfish south of 40° 10′ N. lat. from 2 fish to 3 fish. The inseason progress report provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) (Agenda Item I.6.a Supplemental CDFW Report 1 September 2024) indicates that vermilion/sunset rockfish catch south of 40° 10′ N. lat. shows a decrease in harvest compared to the same time last year. Recreational harvest through July is currently at 76.1 metric tons (mt) and commercial harvest at 60.6 mt. CDFW projects combined vermilion/sunset rockfish mortality at or under the ACL contribution. To date, the additional commercial and recreational restrictions that were put in place seem to be effective at reducing harvest. The recreational fishery south of 36° N. lat. will change to an “offshore only” fishery seaward of the 50-fathom regulatory line on October 1st. As indicated in the inseason request submitted to the GMT, vermilion/sunset rockfish are more abundant in deep waters and there will likely be higher encounters of vermilion/sunset rockfish in the offshore only fishery. An increase to the recreational sub-bag limit now would create enforcement and outreach concerns. The Council only has jurisdiction over actions in federal waters. Between 40° 10′ N. lat. and 36° N. lat. in November the recreational fishery is closed in federal waters and open in state waters only shoreward of the state 20-fathom regulatory line. If the Council were to adopt an increased vermilion/sunset rockfish sub-bag limit it would only apply to the federal fishery in October and December, barring emergency action by the California Fish and Game Commission. This would create a scenario where the vermilion/sunset rockfish sub-bag would be three-fish one month, two-fish the next, and then return back to a three-fish sub-bag limit. The California recreational and commercial fisheries have seen considerable changes over the last few seasons, increasing uncertainty around modeled mortality projections (see section 5. California Recreational Groundfish Model in the 2025-26 Harvest Specifications and Management Measures). Due to over-harvest of vermilion/sunset rockfish between 2015-2023 (Agenda Item F.8.a Supplemental CDFW Report 1 March 2024), the current tracking harvest levels to date, model uncertainty related to substantial changes to the commercial and recreational groundfish fisheries off California and the increase enforcement and outreach concerns that approval of this inseason request would create, the GMT recommends status quo, of a two-fish sub-bag limit of vermilion/sunset rockfish south of 40° 10′ N. lat.”
The bottom line is we all tried to see if the bag limit could safely be increased by one red. It’s important we all know what the challenges and opportunities are. This writer expects to see steady sailing with the same recreational rockfishing regulations for the foreseeable future.
