Commercial and and Recreational Inseason Adjustment of Canary Rockfish Trip Limits for the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery

NOAA Fisheries published the rockfish trip limit inseason action in the Federal Register on May 1, 2026 (91 FR 23374). This final rule announces routine inseason adjustments to management measures in commercial and recreational groundfish fisheries. This action is intended to allow recreational and commercial fishing vessels to continue access to groundfish stocks while protecting overfished and depleted stocks.

The Council recommended, and NOAA Fisheries is implementing, an increase to the commercial non-trawl canary rockfish trip limits north and south of latitude 40°10′ N. to 4,000 lbs. per 2 months for LEFG and 2,000 lbs. per 2 months for OA. Non-trawl rockfish allocations are generally underutilized and providing the LEFG and OA fishery with increased access to these stocks will have economic benefits without jeopardizing the stocks’ ACLs. Additionally, the Council recommended, and NMFS is implementing, an increase of the canary rockfish sub-bag limit for the Oregon recreational long-leader fishery in federal waters from 1 to 2-fish and a reduction of the fishery’s overall bag limit from 12 to 10-fish.