The Council now has three staff working on groundfish issues with the addition of Julie Walker as a fishery management analyst in January 1997. Julie's responsibilities have not been firmly established yet, since she will be responsible for drafting a Dungeness crab plan, should the Council decide to develop one. Currently, she is covering groundfish fishing capacity reduction, California set net issues, the revised process for groundfish stock assessments, and crab issues. Julie is a graduate of the University of Washington Marine Affairs program. Jim Seger is the Council economist; he is responsible for most sablefish management and allocation issues, limited entry, and other economic issues (as well as salmon economics). Jim Glock is responsible for other groundfish issues and anchovy/coastal pelagic species.

The Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP) establishes the authority for the Secretary of Commerce (Secretary) to implement regulations to manage the groundfish fishery. It specifies the area of jurisdiction, species, types of regulations and procedures the Council and federal government must follow to make any changes. All regulations must be consistent with and authorized by the FMP. The FMP establishes a non-numerical optimum yield (OY) for all groundfish species and a procedure to set quotas and harvest guidelines for individual species. The FMP defines OY as all the fish taken under the regulations and management measures (which include harvest guidelines).

In 1996, reduced harvest levels were established for Pacific ocean perch, Dover sole, Sebastes complex in the Vancouver and Columbia areas, and yellowtail rockfish north of Cape Falcon, Oregon. The coastwide Dover sole harvest guideline was reduced from 13,600 mt to 11,050 mt, which was near the 1995 harvest level. The harvest guideline was calculated by adding the recent average landed catch levels for the Vancouver and Monterey areas to the ABCs for the other areas and deducting 5% for anticipated discard. The POP harvest guideline was reduced to 750 mt, about 40 mt below the projected 1995 landed catch. The new stock assessment of OP indicated landings have exceeded the overfishing level in recent years and contributed to keeping the stock at a low but steady size. The yellowtail rockfish harvest guideline in the northern area wa reduced to 3,600 mt by subtracting 570 mt for discards. This reduction also applied to the harvest guideline for the Sebastes complex in the northern area, which was reduced from 11,800 mt to 11,200 mt.

For the limited entry fishery, all monthly cumulative vessel limits were increased to 2-month limits, with the target harvest level per month being 50 percent of the 2-month limit. However, vessels were allowed to land as much as 60 percent of the 2-month limit during either of the two months, so long as the total for the 2 months did not exceed the specified limit. This approach was intended to reduce discards and as a way to reduce the number of times vessels may be cited for inadvertently exceeding the specified limits. The specified 2-month periods are January-February, March-April, May-June, July-August, September-October, and November-December. The 2-month limits do not apply to limits that are specified "per day" or "per trip," nor do they apply to the open access fishery.

For the Sebastes complex, different trip limits were again established for three regions of the coast: north of Cape Lookout, Oregon (45°20'15"N latitude); Cape Lookout to Cape Mendocino, California; and south of Cape Mendocino. Sublimits were established for bocaccio, canary and yellowtail rockfish. Widow rockfish and Pacific ocean perch were managed under separate cumulative limits as in previous years. The Pacific ocean perch cumulative limit was reduced beginning January 1 and further reduced on July 1. The yellowtail rockfish cumulative limit was reduced on September 1.

Management of thornyheads in 1996 was the similar to 1995, with separate harvest guidelines for each species. However, the species were allocated between the limited entry and open access sectors for the first time, with only 4 mt provided for the open access fishery. Thornyheads are harvested primarily with trawl gear in a multi-species deepwater fishery, and therefore are included in a cumulative trip limit for the Dover sole/thornyheads/trawl-caught sablefish (DTS) complex, with a limit for the two thornyhead species combined and a sublimit for shortspine thornyhead. Different DTS limits were set north and south of Cape Mendocino.

As in recent years, 780 mt (10% of the harvest guideline) was set aside for fisheries of the Makah, Quileute, Hoh and Quinault tribes of northwest Washington.

For limited entry trawl vessels, sablefish are managed with thornyheads and Dover sole as described above. The limited entry nontrawl (pot and longline) fishery was again split between a daily trip limit fishery and a derby. The derby was delayed to September 1 and closed September 6 for a total of 5 fishing days. A mop-up fishery was conducted the month of October under a cumulative limit for each vessel.

Dover sole is managed with sablefish and thornyheads as part of the DTS complex. There is a coastwide harvest guideline and a separate harvest guideline for the Columbia management area, where recent stock assessments indicate a substantial decline in abundance. On July 1 a separate cumulative limit was established for Dover sole north of Cape Mendocino (previously it was restricted only by the complex limit), resulting in a reduction in the DTS limit as well.

Three major changes took place with respect to 1996 whiting management. First, the Council delayed establishing the acceptable biological catch and harvest guideline until March 1996 in order to wait for an updated stock assessment based on the 1995 NMFS survey. The result was a substantial harvest increase over what had been predicted earlier. Second, the Makah tribe entered the fishery and received a 15,000 mt allocation. This was highly controversial because many whiting fishers and Council members believed there was no treaty right for this species. Third, while 1996 was the final year of the allocation scheme that reserved 40% of the harvest guideline for shore-based deliveries, the season was delayed to May 15. This was due primarily to high salmon bycatch in April of 1994 and especially 1995. The at-sea fishery closed June 1 and the shore-based whiting fishery closed September 11.

The yellowtail rockfish stock assessment prepared was extremely controversial and resulted in substantial reductions to ABCs and harvest guidelines. The data from the resource surveys, along with fish age and length data from recent commercial catches, point to a steep decline in population and the likelihood the stock has been over harvested in recent years. Spawning stock biomass is estimated at 15-22% of the unfished spawning biomass in the southern Vancouver area, 7-16% in the northern Columbia area, and 10-22% in the south Columbia-Eureka area. A primary factor in this conclusion is the apparent absence of old fish in commercial trawl and survey catches. The Council set the 1997 harvest guideline at a fishing rate that would, in the long run, overfish the stock, even under the least conservative scientific assessment of the stock condition. The 1997 ABC for the Vancouver and Columbia areas combined is 1,773 mt, a reduction of over 70% from the 1996 ABC of 6,540 mt. The harvest guideline was set at 2,762 mt for total catch rather than landed catch. This is part of a strategy that will deduct a predicted amount of bycatch for the whiting, shrimp and other fisheries to begin the year, replacing the predicted values with the actual catches as data become available inseason. Initially, there is 1,207 mt available for limited entry "targeted" fishing and 275 mt for open access fisheries. The initial 1997 trip limit is 6,000 pounds per 2-month period north of Cape Mendocino, a reduction of over 90% from 1996.

The bocaccio stock assessment indicated a dramatic decline in that stock also, and the harvest guideline for the Eureka-Conception area was reduced from 1,700 mt to 387 mt (the overfishing rate).

Harvest guidelines for the Sebastes complex were established for the Vancouver/Columbia area and the Eureka/Monterey/Conception area; harvest guidelines for both areas are substantially below previous years and near the levels of recent landings. A new assessment of the canary rockfish confirmed the previous conclusion that abundance has declined substantially in recent years.

The whiting ABC and harvest guideline were increased to 290,000 mt and 232,000 mt respectively. The Makah tribe will again participate in the fishery and received an allocation of 25,000 mt (10,000 mt more than in 1996). For the non-Indian fishery, a new allocation was adopted by the Council and is expected to take effect prior to the May 15 opening of the factory trawler and mothership processor seasons. Under the new 3-way allocation, the shore-based sector gets an allocation of 42%, factory trawlers get 34% and vessels delivering to mothership processors get 24%. Separate seasons for each sector may also be established; in 1997, the shore-based fishery will be delayed to June 15. In addition, there will now be a 5% cap on harvest in northern California prior to the opening of the northern shore-based season, and the season opening may be adjusted.

The Council also approved an amendment to the groundfish and salmon plans that would allow trawlers to land incidentally-caught salmon, as long as the trawlers were operating in an approved observation program. The intent was to allow shore-based whiting fishers to land unsorted hauls, but this could also be applied to the at-sea fishery at some time in the future. No regulations are proposed at this time for either fishery.

Limited Entry Non-trawl Sablefish Management

In October 1996, the Council proposed a 3-week cumulative limit fishery with equal limits for all vessels. However, NMFS rejected this recommendation because it could be considered an individual quota program. In March 1997, the Council proposed a 10-day fishery with equal cumulative limits for all qualified vessels to replace the derby. After 1997, it is likely that the primary fishery will be managed using a tiered system of cumulative limits. The Council also set a target harvest of 850,000 pounds for the daily trip limit fishery. In August 1996, the Council recommended further constraining participation in the primary sablefish fishery with a requirement that fixed gear limited entry permits be endorsed for sablefish. Implementation of the sablefish endorsement and the number of permits qualifying will affect the size of the cumulative limits that result from the Council's recommendations for management of the limited entry fixed gear sablefish fishery.

The cumulative limits for the 10-day fishery are expected to be about 36,000 pounds. After the first cumulative limit opening, any fish left over in excess of that required for the daily trip limit fishery will be made available for a cumulative limit mop-up fishery. If the Council takes no other action, the fishery will return to derby management in 1998. However, it is the Council's expectation that a tiered cumulative limit system will be implemented for the 1998 fishery.

For management in 1998 and beyond, the Council identified four preferred options on which it will be soliciting public comment, all of which are based on tiered cumulative limits. Under the tiered options, permits would be assigned to a tier based on their catch history. The following are the minimum qualification poundages for the tiers in each option. Poundages are total round pounds of Council managed sablefish landed during the indicated period.

Option:	A	B	C			D
Years:	'84-'94	'84-'94	'84-'94	OR	'94-'95	'84-'94	OR	'94-'95
Tier 1	777,000	898,000	898,000		233,000	2,100,000		365,000
Tier 2	217,000	411,000	411,000		107,500	898,000		128,000
Tier 3	1/	1/	1/		1/	344,000		67,500
Tier 4	-	-	-		-	1/		2/

1/  All sablefish endorsed permits not qualifying for tiers 1 or 2 wouild be assigned to the third tier.

2/  All sablefish endorsed permits not qualifying for tiers 1, 2 or 3 wouild be assigned to the fourth tier.

The cumulative limits for each tier will vary depending on the number of sablefish endorsements issued, the number of vessels in each tier and numerous other factors. Analysts have made the following preliminary projections of the poundages for the cumulative limits.

1/  The mop-up cumulative limit will be the same for all tiers. The size of the mop-up cumulative limit will be reduced if vessels harvest more than projected.

The above projections are all based on a 7-day season and 164 vessels with qualifying permits. While the cumulative limits may vary from those displayed above, within each option, the ratio of the cumulative limit for one tier compared to another would be kept constant.

The Council is scheduled to take final action on management for 1998 and beyond at its June meeting in Seattle, Washington.

During discussions of management of the primary fixed gear sablefish fishery, it became apparent that growth of the daily trip limit fishery is beginning to erode opportunity in the primary fishery. Vessels active in the limited entry daily trip limit fishery took about 600,000 pounds in 1995 and 825,000 pounds in 1996. In adopting management measures for 1997, the Council indicated its intent to accommodate up to about 850,000 pounds of harvest in the daily trip limit fishery.

Inseason trip limit adjustments in 1997

Beginning May 1, the cumulative limits for shortspine thornyhead, combined thornyheads, Dover sole, widow rockfish and bocaccio will be reduced.