California restores groundfishing opportunities
by American Sportfishing Association 20 Aug 19:41 UTC
CDFW photo of a quillback rockfish from an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (Marine Applied Research and Exploration) © CDFW
After hearing concerns from ASA and the recreational fishing community, the California Fish and Game Commission adopted emergency groundfish regulation changes on August 14 that restore access for northern and central California anglers previously constrained by flawed quillback rockfish estimates.
The new assessment results, which included fishery-independent data collected by CDFW, indicate that the Quillback rockfish off the California coast were never overfished.
The sportfishing industry applauds CDFW and the PFMC for acknowledging anglers' concerns over questionable data, and we hope this may serve as an example for federal fisheries managers to prioritize funding for stock assessments for important recreational species.
Read the full release from CDFW here.