Opinion ID: 808185
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Pacific groundfish fishery

Text: The Pacific groundfish fishery extends 200 miles into the Pacific Ocean, along the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington, and includes more than 90 species of fish that dwell near the sea floor. Fishers use many different types of gear, including trawl nets (nets dragged by boats along the sea floor), traps, and longlines, but trawls dominate. The trawl sector consists of two fisheries, one targeting Pacific whiting (hake) and another targeting non-whiting species. The nontrawl sector includes fishers who use what is called “fixed gear,” such as longlines and pots, and primarily targets sablefish. Every two years, the Pacific Council establishes catch limits, called “optimum yields” or “annual catch limits,” which “represent an annual quantity of fish that the groundfish fishPACIFIC COAST FEDERATION v. BLANK 10757 ery as a whole may catch.” Catch limits are divided among different sectors of the fishery, such as between trawlers and fixed gear fishers; these divisions are called “allocations.” Prior to Amendments 20 and 21, the Council enforced catch limits primarily by regulating the number of fishing trips. The Council also used gear restrictions and seasonal and area closures. Through trip limits the Council was able to measure and restrict harvests, but it was not able to comprehensively measure or limit “bycatch,” which refers to non-targeted (and often overfished) species that are incidentally caught and discarded. Indeed, before Amendments 20 and 21, bycatch was recorded on only one-quarter of non-whiting trawl fishing trips. In mixed-stock fisheries like the Pacific groundfish fishery, harvests of healthy species are constrained by measures to protect overfished species, “even if those species are not targeted by any particular fishery.” The result is sub-optimal harvests. Between 1999 and 2002, seven species were designated as overfished and have since had very low catch limits. See NRDC v. Evans, 290 F. Supp. 2d 1051, 1052-53 (N.D. Cal. 2003). The Council has made various efforts over the years to achieve optimum yields in the trawl fishery while reducing adverse impacts to these overfished species. Nonetheless, “biological, social, and economic concerns” have remained, and the fishery has continued to be viewed as “unsustainable.”