Rockfish Recruitment, PISCO PI Mark Carr interviewed by ABC 7 News Network

2009 Strong Rockfish Recruitment Year

PISCO large-scale recruitment studies have demonstrated that 2009 is a very strong year for rockfish recruitment on the California coast. Historically, rockfish species in California have been overfished. They were very easily depleted by fishing as they are slow growing, which means they take longer to rebound from low numbers. In light of recent management efforts to rebuild rockfish populations along the West Coast, including the Rockfish Conservation Areas (RCA) closed to groundfish fishing, scientists and managers have anticipated returns to sustainable population levels. Episodes of strong recruitment are one of the signals of such rebounds, reflecting the production of large numbers of young by the growing numbers of adults.

Using a recruitment study method known as the Standard Monitoring Unit for the Recruitment of Fishes (SMURF), PISCO scientists are able to quantify the number of recruits that arrive in each recruitment season. These studies are vital for informing two key aspects of ecosystem-based fisheries management:

• They allow us to determine what ocean climate conditions are favorable for the production and survival of young rockfish.
• They allow insight into whether fisheries policies such as the RCA established in 2003 and Essential Fish Habitat Conservation Areas are working.

It is important to distinguish between these factors, because strong recruitment years can be entirely driven by favorable ocean conditions. These potentially enhance or mask the effects of ocean management policies, making it difficult to determine whether the management policies have been effective.

One strong year is not an indication of a completely restocked fishery. It will still take 6 / 7 years for these fish to grow large enough to reproduce themselves and eventually enter the fishery. However findings such as this suggest that policy measures are working and helping to bring back depleted fisheries.  

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