The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Fisheries Service recently proposed to list three populations of rockfish in Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia for protection under the Endangered Species Act. A final decision on the three will be made a year from now.
The Georgia Basin populations of two of the rockfish species – canary and yelloweye – are proposed for “threatened” status. A third rockfish species – bocaccio – is proposed as “endangered.” An endangered species is at high risk of extinction; a threatened species is vulnerable to extinction in the near future and in need of protection.
Populations of all three rockfish species in the Georgia Basin, which encompasses Puget Sound and the Strait of Georgia, have been harvested at high levels, depleting their numbers. Rockfish, which are bottom dwellers, typically live long lives, and mature and reproduce slowly, making them especially vulnerable to overfishing.
According to NOAA scientists, rockfish population growth has also been hampered by other fisheries unintentionally catching the stock and by environmental factors, such as loss of eelgrass beds, pollution and abandoned fishing gear that continues to catch fish.
If these rockfish are listed for Endangered Species Act protection next year, the agency’s initial focus would be on fishing practices in Puget Sound. There is currently a broad state and federal effort to improve the sound’s water quality and nearshore habitat through the Puget Sound Partnership, which is aimed at conserving all marine life, including rockfish. Resident killer whales, Chinook salmon, chum salmon, steelhead and bull trout are already protected in the sound under the ESA.
Credit: NOAA press release.
