Rockfish closed.... figures I'd catch this!

[Dustin07]

I'll correct myself...

Thinking that is a copper rockfish, and if so they live 40+ years so that gal (probably a female) is most likely 20-30 years old...

It's the yelloweye that can live 115 + years.

that's incredible. dont they have like a 9 year breeding cycle though? I thought I had read that this was the reason their numbers were down. Not overfishing as much as just slow breeders ( so I guess it would be easy to overfish relatively...)

[Rob]

Perfect storm of conditions to reduce #'s:

1.  Slow growers, and slow to reach reproductive maturity
2.  Puget sound is a "closed system"  (as opposed to coastal waters where fish can more easily come and go
3.  There are nets in the PS (netting local fish in a closed system is a recipe to reduce #'s)
4.  Tribes hit them hard
5.  They have air bladders so fish caught below 20/30 feet usually do not make it.
6.  Sport fisherman hit them (not as hard as nets and tribes given the one fish limit of past years, and no limits this year, however incidental catches still have impact)

All this to say, the fishing for rockfish (in my opinion) should have stopped by tribes, nets and sport fisherman over a decade ago to allow the stocks to come back.

I'm a diver, I can see first-hand what the stocks are like, and how they have dropped over the years.  I will say that in MPA's and popular dive sites that do not have a heavy rod/reel/spear gun presence, the #'s are much higher and the count of large fish are also much higher so conservation efforts do work.  Popular fishing holes have little to no fish.

Good news is that Ling are part of the greenling family and they grow and reproduce faster.  When spearing at Neah bay, my policy is no rockfish are allowed in my boat (except for blacks and blues as the #'s are high and they grow faster).  Ling however are fair game!

[Dustin07]

how deep do you have to dive up in Neah when going after lings/etc spearfishing?

[Rob]

I regularly see ling in 10 feet of water.  I see them in 130+ feet as well.  They are far more oriented to structure than depth.

[lokidog]

Rob, I can go out and most days in 15 minutes have a limit of coppers/quillbacks for everyone on my boat.  In fact, I have actually noticed an increase in these two species in the four years I have lived in the islands.  Not sure there is much of an impact on them by the tribes/nets as they tend to be in shallower waters <120 feet.  I think the major impact on the 3 listed fish and true cod as well, was the commercial fishing that occurred throughout Puget Sound and the accompanying destruction of habitat by the draggers.

The ESA listing is for canary, yelloweye and bocaccio rockfish.  These fish are generally found deeper than 150 feet as well as the fact that bocaccio were never very common here as this is the very northern edge of their range.  If they simply restricted all bottomfishing to 120 feet or less, there would be no impact on the endangered fish.  The stupid thing is, there will be many fish dying and being eaten by sea gulls as a result of this closing.  How many rockfish are caught for every ling, cabezon, or greenling caught?  Why not at least leave rockfish open concurrent with lings?  So far we have caught four lings, two legal, and seven rockfish in three fishing outings.  This was in locations that I have caught fewer rockfish and were targeting lings in the deepest water allowed.  Amazingly, all of the rockfish were able to swim back down upon release.

We even purchased a venting tool this year just in case we needed it.  I hear studies have not shown them to be effective on rockfish but they are required throughout the Gulf of Mexico.

It was nice to be able to take the boy out after school or stop on the way home from town and catch a rockfish or two for dinner.  We never caught more than we could eat until near the end of the season.  Hopefully he'll remember and be able to tell his kids about "the good old days."

[Rob]

Regarding depth ranges, the #'s you mention have not been my experience.  I regularly see canary in 60-100 feet at Neah Bay and in the San Juans.  there is one reef I goto that has had a school of 15-20 Canary's on it in the 75 foot range for the past 6 years.

Adult yellow eye are usually deep, I have seen the juvies, and juvenile adults in 60 to 80 feet.  While a juvenile YE is too small to take the typical rockfish hook, the Juvenile adults are more than able.  I have never seen a Boccaccio.

Venting tools are good in my opinion - we have used pins before.  If you bring them up slow, they are more likely to survive, but ripping them up off the bottom with 100 pound Dacron from 90 feet is pretty hard on them.  Just be thankful they did not close all bottom fishing.  I'm sure that was on the table. 

Hopefully the stocks will come back in 10 years or so and your kids can take their kids.  I have little faith that the closure will do any good if they fail to control the nets and the tribes.  Sportfishermen are the smallest part of the problem, but the most visible and easiest to control.

[Special T]

Since the tribes can fish the rockfish recovery zone/preserve in roserio straight where we cannot i would find it had to believe that they will have to improve in 10yr on thier own.  You all are die hard fishermen for sure.... I'll wait and go in Canada or alaska... Fishing has to hit rock bottom  (just like hunting) before we can have all share holders come to the table and renegotiate something reasonable.