The Law That's Saving American Fisheries - Ocean Conservancy

Rob Seitz, who operates a trawler on the West Coast, has found ways to adapt to fishing restrictions,
such as fishing at night to avoid bycatch.
PATRICK Dixon, www.PATRICKDixon.net
Rob Seitz
Applying ingenuity to fishing
Rob Seitz, the operator of the 58-foot trawler
South Bay, uses creative fishing and marketing strategies
to adapt to federal regulations implemented to end
overfishing on Pacific groundfish.
In response to the significant depletion of many groundfish
species, NOAA Fisheries and the Pacific Fishery Management
Council have implemented rebuilding plans and catch limits
for overfished stocks. In the groundfish trawl fishery, the
council adopted a catch-share program—one of several ways
to dedicate a fixed share of the allowable catch to individuals,
cooperatives, or communities for their exclusive use.
Among other purposes, the West Coast groundfish program
was implemented to reduce discards and improve economic
returns from the fishery. 27 NOAA Fisheries issues individual
fishing quotas that may be bought and sold on the open
market. To end overfishing, including bycatch of overfished
species, the agency and the Pacific Fishery Management
Council also dictate fishing areas where various species may
or may not be caught.
One tactic that Seitz employs to deal with these restrictions
is fishing at night. Petrale sole, a flatfish that spends its life on
the ocean floor, lives in areas where overfished canary rockfish
also swim. At night, the rockfish rise high enough off the
bottom to allow the South Bay to drag for petrale without
catching the rockfish.
Fishermen are also developing alternative methods, such as
excluders: devices placed in the throat of a trawl net that
allow a flat-shaped fish to enter but direct the ball-shaped
rockfish to a hole in the top, allowing it to swim free.
Innovators are also developing gear modifications such as the
use of pots instead of nets to catch lingcod, which is often
found with overfished cowcod. “A lingcod will go into a pot,
while a cowcod won’t,” Seitz says.
A NOAA Fisheries observer accompanies the South Bay
on every trip to record the poundage of each species
caught. If too many pounds of an overfished species
are caught, a boat can be ordered to stop fishing. Even
so, Seitz likes having an observer onboard at all times.
The Law That’s Saving American Fisheries: The Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act 23