Order Giving Notice of Decisions Not to Add Certain Species to the List of Endangered Species — 1
1 Bocaccio ( Sebastes paucispinis ) The Minister of the Environment has recommended, on the advice of the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, that the Bocaccio not be added to the List of Wildlife Species at Risk (the List) set out in Schedule 1 to the Species at Risk Act (SARA). The Bocaccio is a rockfish species that ranges from southeast Alaska to northern Oregon. It was assessed by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) as a threatened species in 2002 based on population declines. The Bocaccio, while not being targeted by any fishery, is captured as non-directed catch in commercial, recreational and First Nations fisheries. COSEWIC identified fishing as the primary threat to the species even though it is not a target species, since it cannot adjust to rapid changes in pressure, causing all individuals brought to the surface to die. The Puget Sound/Georgia Basin population of Bocaccio is listed as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act (April, 2010), although the US population may be increasing since catch levels were reduced. The current status of the Bocaccio population in Canada is within the critical zone according to the reference points established under the precautionary approach of Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). The prohibitions under section 32 of SARA, which come into effect after listing a species as threatened or endangered, require that any activity that would result in killing, harming, harassing, capturing or taking an individual of the listed species be stopped immediately. This would include any fishing and subsequent buying or selling of the listed species, if Bocaccio is caught as bycatch while listed as threatened or endangered. The negative socio-economic impacts of adding the Bocaccio to the List would be significant. A 45% reduction in the harvest of the target species would be required in order to reduce the incidental catch of Bocaccio to 50 metric tons (t), which would facilitate the population recovery of this species. Reducing the harvest to 50 t would result in considerable costs, with annual profit losses to the commercial harvest sector in the range of $27.5M. This would, in turn, have a distributional impact on income, jobs and GDP. A reduction of 45% in the harvest would affect 700 jobs in the fishery and result in a $40.5M loss in GDP and $24.5M loss in household income, all in the first year. Therefore, DFO will continue to manage this species under the Fisheries Act . Industry will still bear the costs of harvest reductions, but the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans will have the discretion to undertake alternative short-term mitigation measures — such as reduced total allowable catch (TAC), 100% at-sea and dockside monitoring, full catch accountability and monitoring for relative abundance to ensure that total non-directed catch does not increase — that will allow groundfish fisheries to continue in exceptional circumstances. This will avoid early in-season closures of the groundfish fishery, although the frequency with which such closures might be required is not clear. Using the Fisheries Act in the management of this species allows for significant variability in biomass, industry engagement and co-management, integrated management plans and the ability to manage Bocaccio within an integrated broader strategy for all Pacific rockfish. Accordingly, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans has advised the Minister of the Environment not to recommend adding the Bocaccio to the List. In response to conservation and management concerns with respect to groundfish resources on the Pacific coast, DFO initiated discussions with commercial and other groundfish harvesters. The result has been a three-year pilot program, initiated in 2006, to integrate the management of seven separately licensed commercial fishing fleets that target different individual groundfish species or groups of species. Key elements of integration include (a) an inter-fleet trading syste