Frustrated fishermen get good news: good rockfishing, salmon fishing could return in 2024
NOYO HARBOR, 1/22/24 — With an oversized head, bulbous eyes and narrow body, the quillback rockfish looks like a golden bullfrog armed with a quiver full of arrows on its back.
Few sport fishermen want to keep, much less eat, the famously sharp and ouchy and skinny quillback, which are reeled by those seeking meatier rockfish. But it was the quillback, which is often tossed back into the sea, whose population plummet caused a shutdown that impacted the entire rockfish industry, both for commercial and for party boats operating out of Mendocino Coast’s Noyo Harbor.
That mysterious plunge in quillback numbers cut off all near-shore rockfish fishing last year, causing an organized outcry by fishermen and a new plan for 2024.
When the quillback was declared to be “overfished” last summer, a term for population decrease that may or may not be due to fishing, fishing was halted briefly, then restarted with depth restrictions intended to keep fishing below the quillback’s mid-ocean habitat. From August to December, fishermen had to go out to where the water was at least 300 feet deep before hooking a fish. This required boats to go about five miles offshore, which many Noyo Harbor boats can’t afford to do. Authorities have not established why the quillback has declined and other rockfish numbers have improved.
“Overfished” refers to the fact that more fish are being taken than the current population numbers can sustain. But being forced to fish that deep also excluded the non-endangered rockfish like blacks, blues, coppers, plus ling cod and cabezones. These are fish that fishermen most want to catch, much more than the quillback. Irked fishermen have told the state the restrictions were hasty, and social media fishing groups have called for protests if the restrictions continue. The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors, members of the harbor district and local fishing groups got together to spearhead a political effort to overturn the rules.
More surprises
The rockfish restrictions weren’t the only surprise for fishermen last year. Bluefin tuna arrived off Fort Bragg in large numbers, a first. Halibut fishing also came back to areas close enough to Fort Bragg for fishing trips. And in bad news, salmon fishing was closed all year.
The rockfish haul every year is much bigger than salmon in Fort Bragg, according to party boat operators and annual catch figures. The 2023 season had started as usual but shut down when fishermen much too quickly overshot the allowed take of quillback, which was one ton on each side of Cape Mendocino. The harvest of fish overshot on both sides, resulting in a series of closures and restrictions, all documented on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) website. Studies by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that only about 14 percent of California quillbacks remain. This finding was made before last year, and tight seasons were set, but those small quotas were immediately overshot, resulting in restrictions for the entire rockfish fishery.
This year, fishermen hope everything will be different, except, hopefully, the novel tuna fishery.
CDFW Environmental Program Manager Marci Yaremko says the state agency is crafting a different approach to rockfishing for 2024. The fishing gets started every year in April or May.
“We made some pretty extreme cuts last year, and we have heard loud and clear that people are ready to go fishing,” Yaremko said. She said a plan is in the works for a different approach this year — allowing fishing only below a 120-foot depth. Surprisingly, that depth is achieved less than a mile offshore.
The plan is being set up to close all but the deepest waters (over 300 feet) at the start of the season. Then all deep waters will be closed, and fishing will only be allowed near shore, or up to 120 feet. The theory is that both the deep and shallow fishing zones will miss most of the quillback, which tend to live at mid-levels.
None of this impacts shore fishing with a pole or spearfishing, which are restricted only by which fish are legal to catch in season. Yaremko said the specifics of the rockfish season, so critical to Fort Bragg’s economy, won’t be released until counts being done for 2023 are complete and the state and the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) have had a chance to weigh in, which will be during March. Local fishermen who have interacted with authorities anticipate that the first three months of the season will be deep water fishing only (below 50 fathoms or 300 feet) and then the last six months of the rockfish season will be nearshore only (above 20 fathoms or 120 feet).
“We’re waiting for that data to land in our lab to be able to finalize what alternatives we can bring for 2024. What I can tell you is that we have quite a lot of time on the water in 2024 that will alternate between being able to fish inside of 20 fathoms and being required to fish below 50 fathoms,” Yaremko said.
Science questioned by fishers
Capt. Tim Gillespie, owner of the Sea Hawk party fishing boats in Noyo Harbor, has heard the same depth and time frame for rockfishing regulations. But he questions the science that has been provided, saying those who actually work in the water are seeing an entirely different picture of the quillback population. He questions how they came up with the numbers, as the fish is usually released as fast as it is caught on his boat.
“A quillback has very little meat compared to other rockfish and has those spines that fishermen don’t really want to deal with,” he said in a recent interview. He recounted a story of how biologists who are familiar with the ocean and knew how to catch quillbacks went to fish for them as part of the study. Instead of finding sparse fishing, they caught one quillback after another and found them far more plentiful than the PFMC was saying.
“That information was apparently ignored by the regulators,” Gillespie said.
Nonetheless, Gillispie is willing to work with whatever regulations are slated for his daily trip taking fishermen out into the Pacific.
Gillespie thinks many of the regulators would benefit from an ocean trip to see how their regulations match up with what commercial and recreational fishermen see in actual practice. He notes that deep-water fishing excludes some people, such as those not willing to take such a long trip to the fishing grounds and young kids trying to reel in lunkers from the depths.
“We get a lot more families and more people in general fishing when we have to fish the shallower water,” he says. “Another advantage is we catch ling cod when fishing closer to shore.”
Ling cod, called cod because of the same dangling cheese beneath their chins as the Atlantic cod, are actually not true cod at all, but are greenling, fish in the rockfish family. Ferocious predators, they are favored above other rockfish for their vigorous fight to stay in the water and for their often green flesh which turns white when cooked.
Gillespie said that the deep water turned out to be better fishing than many anglers expected.
“People caught a lot of fish out there. They were surprised at the high quality of the fish they got out there. They were catching a lot of chili pepper rockfish which is a fish we don’t normally see that many of.”
The chili pepper rockfish is one of the most landed rockfish by commercial fishermen out of Noyo Harbor. A beautiful fish compared to critters like the quillback, they are sold in pinkish filets and often labeled “snapper” by grocery stores. Local fishermen have fought for years to correct labeling and connect local fish to local markets by name.
On Thursday, as this reporter talked to fishermen and fisherwomen along the Noyo Harbor docks, the Miss Kelley II commercial boat pulled in with a full load of what one bystander said was 50,000 pounds of rockfish. Fishing is open far offshore for commercial trawlers. Recreational fishing boats can get in the way of the commercial fishermen, which is another problem with sending all the boats to deep waters.. Gillespie remembers that for 20 years his boat was not allowed to go much farther offshore than 120 feet deep.
Vern Hartman, who has enjoyed coming to the Mendocino Coast multiple times every summer primarily to fish for rockfish, was eager to hear about the DFW plans so he could plan his own summer trips with the likes of the Gridley Lions Club.
He questions the science behind the closures. He thinks that reducing the catch of ling cod and other predator rockfish might actually hurt the quillback more than reducing the fish catch. Ling cod grow to monstrous sizes and eat many adult rockfish, as well as octopus and other critters not otherwise preyed on. He also has heard that while quillback numbers have dropped in California, they have increased as one goes north, with a bounty of them now in Alaska. Many ocean birds, fish and even invertebrate species have been moving their ranges northward in recent years, a phenomenon widely attributed to climate change.
Hartman is more inclined to blame the flow of nature. “Fish and fishing go in cycles,” he said. “Regulators often overreact to natural cycles and other changes to nature.” Hartman also contested the notion that quillbacks are not caught in shallow water. He catches them all the time right up on the shore, then releases them.
“They are mostly all head and small bodies with only a tiny filet of meat on them. I don’t really want quillback.”
Responding to questions raised by several fishermen about how the quillback lives at all depths, Yaremko said those who catch quillback in deeper waters should use a returning device to return them to the water. This is a cage designed to return the fish to the depth they were caught, which can instantly remove the bulging eyeballs and even protruding stomachs of fish brought up from the depths, caused by the “bends.” While there are commercial returning devices, fishermen can also adapt a milk crate with a rope tied to it for this purpose.
“We understand there is still some small portion of quillback that might be encountered inside 20 fathoms, but we are hoping anglers take care to avoid this species,” she said. “Fishing only inside 20 fathoms should greatly reduce encounters with quillback, and we think we can allow some amount of fishing for other species like black and blue rockfish and cabezon with minimal impacts if anglers follow best practices.”
Getting sport fishermen to properly release quillback is a major priority for this year.
A Pacific fishery Management Council study of quillback off California led by scientist Brian J. Langseth found a 100 percent mortality in fish caught and released after being brought up from a depth of 30 meters feet or more. The study also found recreational removals are the largest source of fishing mortality and represent approximately 70 percent of the total removals of quillback rockfish across all years. This is because so many are caught and released but don’t survive. The study also found the demise of the rockfish started with huge commercial harvests of the 1990s, for new live fish markets serving ethnic communities and restaurants.
Although classified as overfished due to the decline in stocks to 14 percent of historic levels, Yaremko said that is due solely to the numbers. Annual statistics show annual sport harvests increasing dramatically over the past four years compared to the previous four years. But a chart of sport harvests since 1970 shows a roller coaster of ups and downs.
The regulatory term “overfished” is not intended to assign blame to fishermen for the decline of rockfish — studies show many others have been increasing their numbers. The links from NOAA and FWS show many areas being reopened over the past few years as populations have recovered. Regulators are optimistic about the quillback, saying the science shows they are much more resilient than is often feared. The 50th full rebuild and recovery of an ocean fish was announced recently.
This isn’t the first time the ground fishery (primarily rockfish) has been closed. In 2000 a federal disaster declaration was made saying the fishery was a failure. A large area of the ocean was closed to fishing for rockfish and more areas restricted while all sides worked to adjust the seasons. Those measures have largely worked, and most species are making a comeback. Then, more than a decade ago, scientists realized they had grossly underestimated the lifespan of all rockfish. Quillback as old as 95 years old have been identified. Some live longer, like the rougheye rockfish, which can live to be 200. This discovery resulted in a recasting of the reproduction rates and a crackdown on the rockfishing industry. Drastic measures were considered, but the rockfish turned out to be more resilient than had been feared.
Rockfishing has been studied more intensively recently as numbers lagged behind during the worst of the pandemic years. Number-crunching is underway.
“We don’t have the data yet from what happened last year in 2023. So we’re waiting for some final numbers on what was caught in the areas last year,” said Yaremko.
Matt Sully is a commercial fisherman, sport fisherman and a licensed guide, who fishes out of Bodega Bay, Fort Bragg and San Francisco Bay on charters and commercial boats. He said that putting fishermen in a deep water area had several important consequences that DFW might not have foreseen. “Quillbacks aren’t often targeted by anyone because they aren’t a desirable fish to catch,” he wrote via email. “Big thick bones and big long quills on the backs and the meat isn’t anything really special, just an average rockfish. I know where there are thriving populations of quillbacks as the last two biological tests have shown, 16 on the one in ft Bragg and over 20 on the one out of San Francisco. So DFW knows there isn’t an issue with low populations. All they did by opening the deep water was allow fish they have been trying to save as brood stock for years be targeted and other fish such as blues and blacks that are routinely caught out deep but are considered by DFW an inshore fish thrown back with their guts hanging out because you are not allowed to keep them…also allows more Goldeneye rockfish to be caught and harmed which are protected as well.”
As to the arrival of bluefin tuna for Fort Bragg fishermen, Gillespie and Yaremko were equally delighted and said the hope is whatever conditions brought them to the Mendocino Coast will continue. Most fishermen, like Hartman, don’t have large enough boats to participate in catching tuna.
Sully said the tuna have made a comeback after they were nearly fished out by commercial trawling. “In the ‘70s and ‘80s drag nets netted millions of bluefin tuna that was basically worthless once millions of pounds hit the market at the same time so a lot of it was sold cheap as cat food..That drag netting almost depleted the Pacific bluefin stocks to nothing, and protections were put in place to stop it which has resulted in the comeback of the species,” Sully said. “Last year was the first time a significant number of bluefin were caught off our north coast. Someone in Fort Bragg is doing a study in where they are coming from. Some speculate the Southern California bluefin stocks, some speculate these are from Hawaii and are a slightly different strain of bluefin than the Southern California bluefin.”
Yaremko said there was a good possibility of the return of a salmon season, although it likely wouldn’t be a full season. She said initial numbers are better than last year, so regulators are likely to discuss reopening salmon fishing for some amount of time. “About the only thing I can say for sure is that it is unlikely to be a full season,” Yaremko said.
Flatfish fishing has also become a bigger thing in Northern California, and the Pacific Fishery Management Council will again have a chance to decide if that sport will resume off areas like Fort Bragg when it meets in March and April.
The only recreational boat fishing allowed in January is crab fishing. Recreational boats are given a head start on commercial fishing by several months; their season opened Nov. 4. The commercial season was then delayed for regulatory reasons several times and then by a fishermen’s strike. Once the commercial fishermen bring in their first crabs, which started Thursday, Jan. 18, the competition is fierce, and the limited supply of crabs dwindles fairly rapidly. With crab fishing closed in places like San Francisco, local boats get competition on choppy seas from many boats. Gillespie said they got a full boat the last time they went out but expects the crab fishing to thin out for everyone as 2024 goes forward. Fishers on the Noyo Harbor docks were generally predicting good commercial fishing up to about the third or fourth pull of traps (round-trip to the docks) That will happen this weekend for most fishers.
Meanwhile, many people take part in fishing from the banks. Some fish with long poles to snare monkey-faced eels on the Noyo River jetty. Others take mussels. The mussel take has increased greatly since abalone fishing was halted due to the death of the kelp forests. Kelp forests are returning now faster than hoped for but still not enough for an abalone fishery. Yaremko said the earliest an abalone season could be considered is 2026, and that may be too soon.
Others fish for surf perch and blacks and blues or ling cod with poles. A gigantic increase in anchovies in the area made almost all predator fish and birds far more abundant in 2023, many of which can still be seen. There is also a big increase in the number of great white sharks, a species rarely fished for. Yaremko said great whites aren’t part of the problem with quillbacks as the massive sharks don’t usually eat rockfish, which are too spiny and sparse compared to the greatly multiplied sea lion and seal populations.
Additional info:
Quillback Rockfish Inseason Informational Briefing (ca.gov)
CDFW News | Quillback Rockfish Retention Prohibited Statewide, Effective Aug. 7 (ca.gov)
Quillback-China-BlackandYellow Rockfish Identification Flyer
Fort Bragg/Noyo Harbor landings”
Marine fishery Data Explorer (ca.gov)
Total Quillback Catch
Year-commercial-recreational-total
Figures are metric tons of catch
1916 0.02 0.00 0.02
1917 0.03 0.00 0.03
1918 0.07 0.00 0.07
1919 0.02 0.00 0.02
1920 0.02 0.00 0.02
1921 0.03 0.00 0.03
1922 0.03 0.00 0.03
1923 0.01 0.00 0.01
1924 0.02 0.00 0.02
1925 0.08 0.00 0.08
1926 0.07 0.00 0.07
1927 0.14 0.00 0.14
1928 0.12 0.06 0.18
1929 0.11 0.12 0.24
1930 0.18 0.14 0.32
1931 0.25 0.19 0.44
1932 0.18 0.23 0.42
1933 0.14 0.28 0.42
1934 0.13 0.33 0.45
1935 0.23 0.37 0.61
1936 0.22 0.42 0.64
1937 0.15 0.50 0.65
1938 0.21 0.49 0.70
1939 0.20 0.43 0.63
1940 0.08 0.62 0.70
1941 0.14 0.57 0.71
1942 0.13 0.30 0.44
1943 0.18 0.29 0.47
1944 0.92 0.24 1.16
1945 2.27 0.32 2.59
1946 2.38 0.55 2.92
1947 0.48 0.43 0.91
1948 1.00 0.86 1.86
1949 0.35 1.12 1.47
1950 0.18 1.36 1.54
1951 0.33 1.66 1.98
1952 0.28 1.44 1.72
1953 0.16 1.23 1.39
1954 0.40 1.52 1.92
1955 0.02 1.82 1.83
1956 0.04 2.03 2.07
1957 0.06 2.02 2.08
1958 0.10 3.51 3.61
1959 0.05 2.63 2.67
1960 0.02 2.19 2.21
1961 0.02 1.59 1.61
1962 0.02 1.80 1.82
1963 0.06 2.67 2.74
1964 0.03 2.20 2.23
1965 0.10 3.73 3.83
1966 0.04 4.25 4.29
1967 0.08 4.76 4.84
1968 0.07 4.88 4.95
1969 0.00 5.47 5.47
1970 0.00 7.45 7.45
1971 0.00 6.62 6.62
1972 0.00 9.47 9.47
1973 0.00 10.23 10.23
1974 0.00 11.31 11.31
1975 0.00 11.27 11.27
1976 0.00 12.83 12.83
1977 0.00 13.56 13.56
1978 0.12 13.08 13.19
1979 0.00 14.02 14.02
1980 0.00 15.13 15.13
1981 0.56 4.89 5.45
1982 0.56 5.04 5.60
1983 0.56 40.00 40.56
1984 3.17 10.40 13.56
1985 0.00 12.25 12.25
1986 0.08 13.18 13.26
1987 0.15 5.51 5.66
1988 0.29 1.84 2.13
1989 1.87 9.71 11.58
1990 1.32 16.22 17.55
1991 51.17 22.73 73.90
1992 6.16 29.25 35.41
1993 4.92 35.76 40.67
1994 19.87 4.04 23.90
1995 9.63 3.03 12.66
1996 12.01 3.56 15.56
1997 19.64 3.35 22.98
1998 12.30 2.68 14.98
1999 8.47 5.34 13.81
2000 6.51 6.80 13.31
2001 12.50 3.60 16.10
2002 4.78 1.17 5.96
2003 2.04 11.88 13.92
2004 2.46 3.18 5.64
2005 4.90 5.70 10.59
2006 4.42 10.13 14.55
2007 6.60 12.71 19.32
2008 6.33 4.72 11.05
2009 1.16 5.72 6.88
2010 0.88 2.68 3.56
2011 0.95 4.50 5.45
2012 1.69 6.30 7.99
2013 0.68 2.89 3.57
2014 0.45 2.52 2.97
2015 1.12 7.43 8.55
2016 0.98 8.48 9.46
2017 2.76 9.76 12.52
2018 2.73 10.11 12.84
2019 4.56 11.46 16.02
2020 4.36 7.97 12.34
Source- Pacific Fishery Management Council,
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