Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Maximum Sustained Yield, Again... Rockfish

https://www.ktuu.com/content/news/A...cial-and-personal-fishing-566685751.html

Like all reporters these days the terms they use are extremely vague. There are "sport," "subsistence," "commercial," and possibly "personal use" seasons on rockfish. Commercial and personal use are two categories that can go. I strongly question how you can get conservative management practices on a commercial fishery on fish that are often ancient and always old when caught commercially. They are frequently over 100 years old.

Alaska bans rockfish from commercial and personal fishing

By Associated Press | Posted: Fri 6:14 AM, Jan 03, 2020

SITKA, Alaska - The Alaska Department of Fish and Game has announced a full-year closure of both commercial and personal fishing of two varieties of rockfish.

The Daily Sitka Sentinel reported the moratorium is the result of a 60% decrease in rockfish biomass since assessments began in 1994.

The department says demersal shelf rockfish and yelloweye rockfish fisheries in southeast Alaska are included in the ban. Officials say the rockfish decrease occurred despite conservative management practices over the past decade.

The department encourages personal-use fishermen to use rockfish deepwater release devices to decrease the mortality rate of yelloweye while fishing for other species.

(Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

What really pisses me off about rockfish management was when the Board of Fish cut the sports fishing limit on rockfish around Kodiak way down some years back to "...disincentivize sport fishing." And they said it was specifically NOT a biological problem. A tiny fraction of the catch is from sport fishing, but they are again pointed to as the overriding problem!

U are right , got some people up here pissed off this morning...

Not sure I want to wade into this right now.


All I can say is that I watched cut after cut to rod and reels in the saltwater. And not one single cut has resulted in anything improving. Why? Cause rod and reels aren’t the problem.

I am not even certain there is a problem to be honest with you. But, when you have a fleet that likes to set on the rocks to target bigger halibut, you tend to catch a few yellow eye in the process. So, cuts to the rods will make a more target rich environment for the “other” guys, who to the best of my knowledge still get 10% bycatch allowance. Something that has been conveniently left out of the news articles I have read. They did away with a directed rockfish fishery that never should have been happening in the first place.

And yes, this effects me in more than one way, and I also have a lot of skin in the game.

http://www.adfg.alaska.gov/static/applications/dcfnewsrelease/1130983389.pdf

This is the official announcement. Note they are cutting the commercial directed fishery but as Joel pointed out that does not include the bycatch which they suggest they will monitor... There has been a problem they have been documenting for a quarter-century and they admit they have only considered themselves "conservative" in management for the last ten years and somehow they should still continue to exploit a fishery like this?!?!

Elvis Costello once said he used to be angry, but now he is merely amused...


2020 DEMERSAL SHELF ROCKFISH AND YELLOWEYE ROCKFISH FISHERIES
ANNOUNCEMENT
Sitka. . . The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) announced the following information concerning the
commercial directed Demersal Shelf Rockfish (DSR) and personal use yelloweye rockfish (Sebastes ruberrimus) bottomfish
fisheries in Southeast Alaska.
The directed DSR commercial fisheries in the Southeast Outside Subdistrict (SEO), Northern Southeast Inside
Subdistrict (NSEI), and Southern Southeast Inside Subdistrict (SSEI) will be closed for the 2020 season and will
remain closed to directed DSR fishing until further notice. The SEO area includes the East Yakutat (EYKT), Northern
Southeast Outside (NSEO), Central Southeast Outside (CSEO), and Southern Southeast Outside (SSEO) Sections.
The personal use bottomfish fishery in the Sitka and Ketchikan vicinities as defined per 5 AAC 77.674. (A) and (B)
will be closed for nonretention of yelloweye rockfish for the 2020 season and will remain closed until further notice.
Personal use fishermen are encouraged to utilize rockfish deepwater release devices to decrease release mortality of
yelloweye rockfish while bottomfish fishing for other species.
More information on rockfish conservation and deepwater release devices can be found on the ADF&G website at:
https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=fishingSportFishingInfo.rockfishconservation
Biomass has declined approximately 60% since assessments began in 1994 for yelloweye rockfish in the Eastern Gulf of
Alaska, despite conservative management over the last decade. In addition to the decline in biomass, annual trends in
biological data (length, weight, and age by sex) reveal truncation of age classes, thus reducing reproductive potential and
increasing uncertainty for future recruitment of juveniles. The yelloweye rockfish component comprises over 95% of the
DSR commercial harvest and is the primary target compared to the six other DSR species (quillback, copper, rosethorn,
canary, China, and tiger rockfish). DSR are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation and are slow to recover once fished
below sustainable levels given their longevity, slow growth, late maturation, and high site-fidelity, with yelloweye rockfish
reaching an estimated maximum age of 122 years and maturing at 18–22 years.
These concerns warrant further management action to allow for rebuilding of DSR stocks and to ensure sustainable rockfish
fisheries in the future. Further restrictions in other fisheries will be considered to reduce DSR bycatch. Stock health will
continue to be assessed annually through stock assessment surveys and biological sampling of yelloweye bycatch retained
in commercial groundfish and halibut fisheries, as mandated under full-retention requirements (5 AAC 28.171).
Annette Islands Reserve
Fishermen are reminded the Annette Islands Reserve is a federally recognized Indian reservation in Alaska. The waters
within 3,000 feet of Annette Island, Ham Island, Hemlock Island, Spire Island, Walker Island, Lewis Island, and adjacent
rocks and islets are designated within the fishing reserve. Fisheries within the reserve are managed by the Metlakatla Indian
Community for authorized fisheries participants.
DSR Directed Fishery page 2 of 2 December 31, 2019
Metlakatla residents are also reminded that waters

I assume personal use in the area includes the use of longlines?

Subsistence does, but they are pretty much a non issue. No skates on outer coast.

What people don’t think about is that se ak is huge, and most yellow eye live deeper than the rods fish. Rods actually fish a small percentage of the yellow eye habitat in se ak.

I would like to see what the “further restrictions” are actually going to be. The longliners are the elephant in the room. The rocks = bigger more valuable fish.

For one thing they call it "Alaska" when only SE is in this advisory...

Brown Bombers (Duskys) and Black Bass it is then.

Got a deep-water release last year and used it a few times. Wife hates to see "floaters"

Everyone fishing deep water/rocks should be required to use them, IMO. Especially the charters. Several years ago I was on a Montegue Island halibut trip out of Seward. Charter captain had no care for the yelloweye we were catching, and we had a long line of floaters drifting out behind for the birds.

After I had my first yelloweye, caught between my 2nd and third halibut (released as too small), I caught 2 more yellow eye(wasted floaters) and kept the next two small halibut, and quit, pissing off Captain Bligh..

The others kept fishing, killing and wasting maybe 20 yelloweye in addition to their single keeper.

If I go on another such charter, the boat WILL have and use a deep release device, or I won't charter that boat.

In se it’s been law to use the deep water release on charters. Pretty easy to avoid them when halibut fishing, but what you pointed out illustrates the shear abundance of them.

We were not real popular with Captain Bligh anyway after we suggested a move with nearly an hour with no bites. He got right snarky. A half hour later we did move, and that's when we got into all the small halibut and big yelloweye.

I think it was deliberate.

Was that Saltwater Safari? Have heard of similar stuff about him for years.

That was going to be my guess also.

Great minds and all...

Releasing yellow eye via a release might be one of my least favorite things to do. And I cheat and use an electric downrigger.

The reality though is that their seems to be days you can’t avoid them. Been pounding the same water for 17 years now with very full seasons and I still land on them on occasion.

Yes, it was Art. I am a failure at discretion...... or tact, for that matter.

Yeah, but he is worse...

Have yet to meet an Alaskan that has anything good to say about saltwater safaris...