Our Commitment to West Coast Fisheries

Scientists, industry leaders, and conservationists alike are becoming increasingly concerned about the sustainability of the west coast groundfish fishery. This fishery comprises 80+ species with an ex-vessel commercial value of $100 million annually. Yet abundances of several important species have declined alarmingly.

As part of its mandate under the Sustainable Fisheries Act, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) must provide the best available scientific information on which to base management decisions about the groundfish fishery. Monitoring and forecasting the potential productivity of this resource have been based on stock assessments conducted by NMFS, state, and university scientists relying on NMFS resource surveys and on state fishery monitoring data. These assessments are the primary technical basis for strict annual and monthly harvest restrictions imposed to conserve the long-term health of the stock while achieving a year-round fishery. These restrictions strongly impact the overcapitalized fishing fleet. Meanwhile, these assessments have come under frequent and vocal challenge.

In 1995, following complaints by coastal fishermen, an international panel of experts, the West Coast Stock Assessment Review Panel, was convened to assess the accuracy of stock assessments for valuable deepwater species. The Panel concluded that it could not evaluate the accuracy of the assessments because the database was insufficient. In particular, the trawl surveys conducted by NMFS for these species were judged to have inadequate coverage and marginal gear performance. The Panel recommended that quotas not be increased until more definitive assessment results could be obtained. Further, it recommended that NMFS take immediate steps to increase interaction between scientists and fishermen.

The west coast groundfish trawl and processing industries and Center scientists have discussed innovative cooperative research investments that will improve data collection and thus allow reasonable harvest levels without unduly risking the stocks.

In April 1995, the Director and senior staff of the Northwest Fisheries Science Center described to the Pacific Fishery Management Council how the Center's newly formed Fishery Resource Analysis & Monitoring (FRAM) Division could contribute to a better understanding of west coast groundfish. The Center's new program was attentive to the Council's biennial review of research and data needs, particularly relative to multispecies assessments and bycatch.

The National Marine Fisheries Service has given the Northwest Fisheries Science Center responsibility to coordinate all west coast groundfish programs. FRAM has organized its efforts to complement existing groundfish programs developed in the states and other federal laboratories. Indeed, FRAM depends on these entities for data, stock assessments, and research.

Slope Species Assessments   The Center is currently updating the stock assessments for sablefish, Dover sole, and thornyheads. These involve careful evaluation of past slope trawl survey data and explore the use of fishery logbook data. However, these in-depth investigations cannot improve the imprecision caused by insufficient data (see pull-out, "Critical Need for Research Vessel").

Multispecies Rockfish   A multispecies assessment of the previously unassessed group of rockfish species was conducted during 1995-96. Sparse data prevented application of standard assessment methods.

Biology of West Coast Sablefish   The Center began a collaborative project in October 1995 with Oregon State University to measure biological parameters critical to the sablefish stock assessment. Using samples from several sources, including industry vessels, scientists are comparing reproductive output among deep- and shallow-living sablefish. Also, tagging of young sablefish will allow measurement over the next few years of their rate of movement from shallow to deep water.

Age Readers   Despite the importance of age data for stock assessments and studies of fish growth and movement, the number of age readers has declined over the past several years. Center funding has increased by three the age-reading staff of the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife. These age readers contributed important data for the 1997 Dover sole and sablefish assessments.

Resource Surveys designed by the Center and conducted by the Alaska Fisheries Science Center (AFSC) are critical to west coast groundfish assessments. The 1994 gear experiment and the 1995 and 1996 slope surveys, with an onboard industry observer, were successful in solving problems with fishing operations and gear performance of the standard slope trawl survey.

In light of its 1997 updating of the sablefish, Dover sole, and thornyhead stock assessments, the Center is carefully evaluating the impact of this change in the survey and contribution of pre-1994 slope survey data to the assessments. The AFSC conducted the standard fall slope survey in 1996, which encompassed the upper continental slope of the entire Vancouver and Columbia management areas.

The Northwest Fisheries Science Center is contributing to bycatch investigations in several ways.

Observer Program   The Center provided $175,000, or 11% of the FRAM FY97 budget, to increase the number of vessels that could be observed each month, as a part of the pilot voluntary observer program initiated in 1995 by the Oregon Trawl Commission and the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife Technical consultation is also provided with this funding.

Sablefish Bycatch Survival   In 1996 the Center developed a collaborative project with researchers at the University of Washington to measure in the field the survival probability for sablefish captured in bottom trawls and subsequently discarded.

Bycatch Prediction in the Deepwater Trawl Fishery   The Center began a collaborative project in October 1995 with the University of Washington to support an investigation of multispecies patterns in the deepwater trawl fishery based on fishery logbook and observer data. The project is developing predictors of how fishermen direct their effort and could lead to development of the best-possible combination of trip limits.

National Bycatch Working Group    Ray Conser of the Center's FRAM Division is participating on a NMFS national working group to share knowledge of bycatch investigations and to provide a framework for development of new programs.

The Center developed an index of slope species abundance from existing fishery logbook data. Indexes were used in 1997 stock assessments.

Logbook Data   The Center has acquired the west coast fishery logbook data and initiated an effort to build upon the data summarization and calibration efforts completed at Oregon State University in 1997. A workshop was sponsored in December 1996 to explore with both scientists and fishermen the important role of logbook data in stock assessments for slope species.

Logbook Data Research   The Center initiated this collaborative project in October 1996 with Oregon State University to support a graduate student to continue fishery logbook investigations, particularly related to detection of temporal changes in location of fish aggregations and fishing effort.

The Center's FRAM Division was formed just as the external review panel was recommending improvements in the Council's groundfish assessment review process. The Council's Scientific Statistical Committee developed guidelines for an enhanced review process, and FRAM facilitated implementation of these guidelines with an assess- ment review workshop in June 1996. The Center sponsored pre-assessment meetings in December 1996 and April 1997, and hosted a review panel for stock assessments on the deepwater groundfish complex.

Two FRAM staff participated in the National Research Council's nationwide review of stock assessment methods. Also, a collaborative project begun in October 1996 with Oregon State University is providing training to a graduate student that will result in improved knowledge of the performance of stock-assessment models under a variety of population dynamics.