Crescent City Profile - California Sea Grant

completely. These actions reflected the PFMCpolicy of imposing greater restrictions in areaswith greater impacts on Klamath fall Chinook(the KMZ) in lieu of lesser restrictions over alarger geographic area.Beginning in 1992, the PFMC prohibitedretention of coho in the commercial salmonfishery south of Cape Falcon, Oregon dueto conservation concerns regarding OregonCoastal Natural coho (PFMC 1992). This ledto fishery disaster declarations for Californiaand Oregon fishing communities in 1994and 1995. Although the KMZ commercialfishery was not nearly as dependent on cohoas fisheries further north, the California KMZwas completely closed from 1992 through1995, largely due to more localized factorsthat compounded the effects of the cohononretention policy. In 1993, Klamath fallChinook was declared overfished (PFMC1994), and the Department of Interior Solicitorissued an opinion allocating 50% of Klamath-Trinity River salmon to the Yurok and Hoopatribes. This was significantly higher than the30% tribal allocation brokered by the KlamathFishery Management Council in a previous1987–1991 agreement, and required reducedallocations to nontribal fisheries, includingthe KMZ commercial fishery (Pierce 1998). 10As a result, commercial salmon seasons inthe California KMZ have at times been onlydays or weeks in duration, and in some yearscompletely closed (as occurred in 1985). Thecumulative effect of these management actionswas to discourage (nontribal) salmon fishingalong much of the North Coast, resulting insubstantial reductions in both commercial andrecreational fishing activity at Crescent City, aselsewhere.In 2006, failure of Klamath fall Chinook toachieve its escapement floor 11 for the thirdconsecutive year triggered a conservationalert and prompted the PFMC to close thecommercial fishery in the California KMZ andcurtail the season in other areas. Unusually lowescapement of Sacramento River fall Chinookin 2008 and 2009 lead to unprecedentedclosures of California’s commercial fishery anddramatically curtailed seasons in Oregon. The2008–2009 closures have been unprecedentedfor many salmon-dependent communities,though less so for Crescent City, which hasbeen subject to stringent KMZ regulations formore than two decades.Fishing opportunities also have been curtailedby state and federal management in theWest Coast groundfish fishery. In 1982, thePFMC implemented the federal West CoastGroundfish FMP, and began to manage thecommercial fishery with measures suchas harvest guidelines, trip landing and tripfrequency limits, and gear restrictions.However, it wasn’t until 1994 that PFMCimplemented a coastwide limited entryprogram for the trawl and fixed gear (hookand-lineand pot) fisheries, and a small openaccess fishery for nontrawl fishermen.In 1992, the PFMC adopted a harvest ratepolicy for groundfish based on the assumptionthat West Coast groundfish were similar inproductivity to other well-studied groundfishstocks. Over the next eight years, as growingscientific evidence indicated that rockfish(Sebastes spp.) had productivity rates muchlower than other groundfish species, the PFMCadopted increasingly restrictive managementmeasures for rockfish. 12 However, thesemeasures came too late to reverse the effectsof longstanding harvest policies based oninaccurate assumptions, and between 1999 and2002, eight groundfish stocks were declaredoverfished. 13 In 2000, a federal disaster wasdeclared in the West Coast groundfish fishery.To rebuild overfished stocks, optimum yields(OYs) and trip landing limits for healthy stockstypically taken with the species of concern,as well as those overfished species, wereCrescent City Fishing Community Profile 7