North Pacific Hake - Fisheries

Fisheries

Pacific whiting supports one of the most important commercial fisheries off the West Coast of the United States. There are three recognized stocks of Pacific whiting: a highly migratory offshore (or coastal) stock that ranges from southern Baja California to Queen Charlotte Sound, a central-south Puget Sound stock, and a Strait of Georgia stock. The latter two stocks are managed by state and local management agencies, but the offshore, or coastal, fishery in U.S. waters is managed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) through its Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP).

Originally approved in 1982, the Groundfish FMP now manages over 90 different species through a number of measures, including harvest guidelines, quotas, trip and landing limits, area restrictions, seasonal closures, and gear restrictions (like minimum mesh size for nets). Annual quotas are the primary management tool used to limit the catch of whiting. Pacific whiting was declared overfished by the U.S. government in 2002. The stock was declared rebuilt and no longer depleted in 2004. The coast-wide (U.S. and Canada) Pacific whiting stock is assessed annually by a joint technical team of scientists from both countries.

In 2003, the United States and Canada signed an agreement that allocates a set percentage of the Pacific whiting catch to American and Canadian fishermen over the next decade and established a process for the review of science and the development of management recommendations. Beginning in late 2007, management of Pacific whiting and related science activities will be coordinated under the provisions of this international treaty with Canada.

The Marine Stewardship Council (www.MSC.org) certified the midwater Pacific Hake (whiting) fishery as sustainable on 21 October, 2009.

The local and state-managed Puget Sound and Strait of Georgia stocks are "species of concern" - species that NOAA Fisheries Service has concerns about regarding population status and threats but has insufficient information to indicate a need to list the species under the Endangered Species Act. There has been no directed commercial fishery for this stock since 1991.