By Daniel Mintz
Several key West Coast fisheries begin or pick up during spring months. Here’s a rundown on the areas, regulations and species included in spring fishing seasons.
Salmon
West Coast Chinook salmon fishing in California and Oregon has been impacted by reduced abundance of Sacramento and Klamath river fall run stocks, with California under complete closure the last two years.
Oregon’s fishing has been limited, especially in the Klamath Management Zone from Humbug Mountain to the state’s southern border.
The process of developing abundance forecasts begins in February and the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) approves West Coast salmon seasons in April.
In years that aren’t being affected by drought and other limiting factors, seasons begin in late April and run through October, with periodic closures.
California is divided into zones covering the southern border to Monterey and the San Francisco, Fort Bragg and Humboldt/Del Norte County areas. Oregon’s seasons are split into two zones: the Klamath Management Zone and the area from Humbug Mountain north to Cape Falcon.
Washington’s fishing has a single zone, from Cape Falcon in Northern Oregon to Washington’s northern border.
California’s fishery is exclusively Chinook salmon, with coho included in Oregon and Washington.
Northern Oregon and Washington have a spring season from mid-May to the end of June and a summer season from July through mid-September. The seasons include quotas.
Minimum size restrictions apply throughout the West Coast and only hook-and-line gear is allowed.
Drought has hit California hard in recent years and while 2023 saw record rainfall, there’s a lag time between rain years and fall runs as juveniles mature.
“I don’t think the environmental conditions from the drought are extreme as they once were so we might be seeing some relief from that,” PFMC Salmon Officer Robin Ehlke told Fishermen’s News, adding that if mortality of out-migrating juvenile salmon has been reduced due to easing of the drought, “We’ll start seeing that bit by bit.”
Ocean conditions also play a major role and they’re in the process of being evaluated.
“We’ll have to wait until our March meeting—we get a report on that every year on what those ocean conditions look like and what the forecast may be for future ocean conditions,” Ehlke said.
When California’s fishing closure is lifted, the state’s seasons are set to include something new—regulations designed to protect California Coastal Chinook. Ehlke said the new rules include vessel catch limits and quotas.
California’s fishing situation is expected to improve in the future due a historic development—removal of Klamath River dams, which opens salmon access to hundreds of miles of habitat.
“The dams are out and the fish are upstream,” Ehlke said, describing it as “super good news.”
How long is it expected to take for dam removal to translate into stabilization of Klamath Chinook runs?
“I think everybody’s answer is going to be, ‘We’ll find out’,” said Ehlke, adding, “Up to 10 years is a very common response to that question.”
Groundfish
West Coast groundfish fisheries are managed by the PFMC under a Pacific Coast Groundfish Management Plan, which includes 90 species.
Fishing is divided into four sectors—a limited entry trawl sector with Individual Fishing Quotas (IFQs), a limited entry fixed gear sector covering use of longlines and pots and limited access and open access fixed gear sectors.
Oregon and California have an additional sector for bottom trawl at-sea whiting.
The fishery is year-round but spring is a key window, as catching groundfish bridges the gap between the tapering of the Dungeness crab season and the start of the salmon season.
There are closed areas, including the nearshore area just outside state waters from central to northern California, due to quillback rockfish concerns.
Oregon has less expansive, species-specific closures and spring is when fishing activity starts to take off.
The larger vessels making up the whiting fleet are active May through fall, when some switch to pollock fishing in Alaska.
In Washington, commercial groundfish fishing isn’t allowed in state waters.
Two groundfish species are considered overfished—quillback rockfish and yelloweye rockfish.
Todd Phillips, PFMC’s groundfish policy analyst, said yelloweye is on track to be designated rebuilt by 2029.
Quillback are due to be assessed again next year to “figure out where it is in terms population health,” he continued, but rebuilding is expected to “take some time.”
It’s part of a groundfish bounce back after a crash in 2000.
“Overall, fisheries in federal waters are doing quite well,” Phillips said. “And that’s why some of our regulations have relaxed a little bit in the last couple of years to allow more effort out in the shelf-and-slope areas, both by trawlers and the fixed gear guys.”
The PFMC manages the fishery biannually, with the next two-year cycle beginning in 2025.
“In terms of management trends, I think what we’ll probably start to see depending on the market is more attainment of shelf species—yellowtail and widow rockfish, boccacio and chili pepper (rockfish)—and potentially more sablefish (black cod) landed,” said Phillips. “A lot of healthy year classes came through, so we have just a crazy amount of sablefish.”
But the market for sablefish is “really sluggish right now,” he continued, due to a slack Japanese market.
The West Coast’s low processing capacity is also a limiting factor, he continued.
Pink Shrimp
The pink shrimp trawl season is uniform across the West Coast.
It usually begins April 1 and runs through the end of October but if landings fall under 12,500 pounds per trip in June, the season closes on Oct. 15 and the next season is delayed until April 15.
California worked those provisions into a harvest control rule in 2022, aligning the state with rules in Oregon and Washington.
Regulations are mostly consistent in all three states.
Bycatch reduction devices are required, as are footrope lighting devices.
Pink Shrimp trawling is mostly done in federal waters, with a per-trip count limit of 160 shrimp per pound. But in California, the count limit applies in state waters, which generally extend three nautical miles from shore, and shrimp trawling isn’t allowed in Washington’s state waters.
Permits are required and must be renewed each year.
It is unlawful to land shrimp taken south of the Oregon-California border with nets having a mesh size of less than 1 3/8 inches between knots.
Also in California, incidental per-day catches of more than 500 pounds of groundfish are illegal and monthly sub-limits for lingcod and sablefish also apply.
Other bycatch rules include a ban on retaining canary rockfish, yelloweye rockfish and any species of thornyheads.
Although the 2023 harvest was considered good, the price was one of the lowest in years, averaging 40 cents a pound.
Market Squid
Focused mostly in California, market squid is a high volume fishery running all year, from April 1 to March 31.
The state’s fishery has a maximum total allowable catch limit of 118,000 short tons. But in recent years, the limit hasn’t come close to being reached, with only 26,000 short tons landed in 2023 with a total value of $33 million.
Permits are required and they authorize use of purse seines, nets and brail gear, including dip and scoop nets, and lights to attract squid at night.
Market squid light boat permits restrict total wattage to a maximum of 30,000 watts per vessel.
Shielding is required on lights, with lower edges of the shields parallel to decks, and lights must be directed downward.
Permits are transferable and renewed annually.
There’s no total catch limit in Oregon, but before reaching a harvest of 4.5 million pounds, with a limit of 3 million pounds north or south of Heceta Head, ODFW evaluates the fishery in public hearings.
Purse seines, dipnets, and hook-and-line gear are allowed.
Purse seine gear restrictions include a maximum length limit of 1,800 feet and maximum mesh size of 1 3/8 inches.
Lighting is allowed if done by the catching vessel or an associated skiff.
In Washington, a 2,000-metric-ton harvest guideline—which is an objective, not a quota—applies to catch and landings in the purse seine gear fishery.
Dip and brail nets and squid jigging gear are also allowed.
Drag seine gear is allowed in Willapa Bay, Grays Harbor and the Lower Columbia River, with a 350-foot maximum length and a 1 ¼ inch minimum net mesh size.
Lighting is allowed, with a maximum combined power of 10 kilowatts. Lights of 200 watts or more must be shielded.
Albacore Tuna
Commercial fishing for Pacific albacore tuna is year-round but activity ramps up in the spring months and peaks in late summer.
West Coast albacore fishing occurs both inside and outside of the U.S. exclusive economic zone, using troll/jig gear and pole-and-line gear.
Mid-sized trolling vessels use 10 to 20 lines of various lengths to catch albacore.
West Coast albacore fishing is managed by the PFMC under a Fishery Management Plan (FMP) for highly migratory species.
The FMP is a mix of fixed and flexible measures, under an adaptive management approach.
The primary tool for limiting catch of highly migratory species is an overfishing declaration based on stock assessments.
An overfishing determination triggers amendment of the FMP, with new management measures aiming to restore stocks.
The fishery requires permits and logbooks documenting catch.
But management of albacore and other highly migratory species is complex, as their range extends outside of U.S. waters. The provisions of the FMP may have limited effect if other nations don’t participate in stock rebuilding efforts.
West Coast commercial landings of Pacific albacore tuna in 2022 totaled 7.2 metric tons, with a total value of $36 million, according to NOAA Fisheries.
But the harvest and value dropped dramatically in 2023, with only 3.3 metric tons landed for a total value of $9.7 million—the worst catch and value seen in decades.