At a meeting of the Groundfish Management Team (State and Federal marine biologists with knowledge of bottomfish) of the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) this week, the stock assessment author for the bocaccio stock assessment laid out the new rebuilding schedule for bocaccio -- and recommended that due to the increased abundance and spawning potential of the species, the quota (known as the OY, or optimum yield) for 2004 could be set at a range of 224 to 293 tons while providing a 70-80 % probability of rebuilding! This is great news as this years’ quota is set at 20 tons, and is the reason we have a total closure to rockfish outside of 20 fathoms and a six-month total rockfish closure.

The PFMC will be meeting the week of June 16, 2003 in Foster City near San Francisco, and they will discuss the possibility of using emergency regulations to modify the rockfish regulations for the season that will open on July 1, 2003, as well as begin the two meeting process that will end at the PFMC meeting in September in Seattle with adoption of rockfish regulations for 2004. As I have said earlier, the status of bocaccio has been driving the restrictions for several years, and so this new OY will help big time in easing closures and other restrictions! It will also finally recognize what the SAC fleet has been saying for 5-6 years-that the bocaccio (salmon grouper) are back, and in fact they never really left-they just went deep to avoid the years of warmer than normal water temperatures.

In light of this new science, there are a number of skippers who are asking some hard questions regarding last year’s restrictive regulations, regs that nearly put some boat owners out of business.
It is obvious that these fish didn’t just ‘appear’ this year, but were there all the time, as we have been saying! The June Council meeting should be interesting, as these questions will be asked of the stock assessment’s author. Bottom line, we should get to fish deeper than 20 fathoms this year and should get most if not all of the six-month closure back for 2004!

Remember, that OY is total impact on bocaccio, which includes all recreational and commercial fishing catch, as well as all discards that result in mortality. Usually the allocation has been more towards the recreational side, say 60%, with 40 % going to commercial catch and discard. If we are allocated 60 % of a 250 ton OY we will have a quota of 150 tons—more than enough to fish all year and we could even get a small bocaccio bag limit, although that is speculation. The decision will come from the Council with input from the groundfish advisors, the state of California and the public. SAC will be there to provide the fleets’ recommendation for the rest of 2003 and all of 2004.

Just for comparison, the total recreational catch of bocaccio in the last 15 years off the west coast has never exceeded 200 tons in any one year, and that was with a 15 fish bag limit. During the early years of that time period the commercial catch exceeded 1,500 tons
on several occasions. Simply, a quota of 150 tons in 2004 will give us enough fish to access the rest of the rockfish complex, minus cow cod of course.

That’s where we are, and I’ll update this site after the June PFMC meeting.