Rockfish Bycatch Reporting Network

The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association has secured funding through the Oak Foundation and the Alaska Marine Conservation Council to develop a real-time rockfish bycatch reporting network for the Eastern Gulf of Alaska. Preliminary funding has allowed for development of charts that indicate halibut and blackcod survey stations with high rockfish bycatch rates.

PDF of a Power Point presentation about the Fishery Conservation Network.
(2.04mb PDF file)

Rockfishes have extreme longevity, with some species living in excess of 100 years. Their life history characteristics and physiology make them susceptible to overharvest, although no species of rockfish is listed as overfished in the Gulf of Alaska and the harvest of rockfish by longline fisheries in the Gulf is below the allowable catch limits.

YE and RESR hotspots
hi resolution. Click on
the image for a PDF file
of this map (5.49mb).

CSEO Hotspots, Percent
YE to Halibut from 2008
IPHC SSA. Click on
the image for a PDF file
of this map (900kb).

Three species of rockfish are commonly taken as bycatch in eastern Gulf longline fisheries for other species.  Yelloweye rockfish (S. ruberrimus) are the primary bycatch species in the commercial and charter fisheries for halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis). Rougheye rockfish (S. aleutianus) and shortraker rockfish (S. borealis) are bycatch in the deepwater longline fishery for sablefish (Anoplopoma fimbria). 

Both the halibut and sablefish longline fisheries in Alaska have been awarded Marine Stewardship Council certification and are well-managed fisheries with minimal bycatch issues. However, the longline fleet is concerned about rockfish bycatch and its potential to adversely affect other fisheries, as witnessed off the west coast of North America.  The charter halibut industry in area 2C has exceeded the sport fish allocation of demersal shelf rockfish, primarily yelloweye rockfish, potentially creating localized depletion issues. At a recent Alaska Board of Fisheries meeting regarding Southeast groundfish, longline fishermen committed to reduce rockfish bycatch (even though they were below management targets) in an effort to be proactively conservative. Although these species of rockfishes tend to be habitat specific, it is difficult to predict exactly where high bycatch may occur. Temporal distribution of fishes depends on food availability, currents, and temperature, in addition to habitat.

Future funding is being pursued to allow full implementation of bycatch reporting network resulting in real-time identification of bycatch hotspots, allowing fishermen to set in areas that are less likely to have high rockfish bycatch.

YE hot spots 2007 IPHC survey overview. Click on the image for a PDF file of this map (5,721kb).

YE hot spots 2007 IPHC survey EYKT NSEO. Click on the image for a PDF file of this map (2,923kb).

YE hot spots 2007 IPHC survey NSEO CSEO SSEO. Click on the image for a PDF file of this map (5,721kb).

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