Pacific Whiting

Pacific whiting, or hake, is a ray-finned fish species found off the West Coast of the United States and Canada. They are a semi-pelagic schooling species of groundfish. There are three stocks of Pacific whiting: a migratory coastal stock, ranging from southern Baja California to Queen Charlotte Sound; a central-south Puget Sound stock; and a Strait of Georgia stock. While the latter stocks have declined substantially, the coastal stock remains large and healthy and is the most abundant commercial fish stock on the Pacific Coast. Pacific whiting are night-time predators that move up the water column to feed and then migrate back down during the day.

• Pacific whiting is a round fish.
• They are silvery in color with black speckles on the back and black inside the mouth. 

• Pacific whiting grow fast, up to 3 feet in length, and can live to more than 15 years old.
• Relatively little is known about their spawning season and locations. They are known to spawn in large numbers from January through March off south-central California, and were traditionally thought to migrate seasonally. However, recent studies have also shown that they may spawn as far north as Canada.
• In the spring, they travel nearshore and to the north to feed along the continental shelf and slope from northern California to Vancouver Island.
• In the summer, they form large schools along the continental shelf break. In years with warmer water temperatures, whiting tend to move farther north during the summer. Older whiting tend to migrate farther than younger fish.
• Female whiting are able to reproduce when they reach 2 to 4 years old (13 to 16 inches long). Males mature by 3 years of age (11 inches long).
• Females release their eggs, which males then fertilize externally. Eggs hatch in 5 to 6 days.
• They feed on shrimp, krill, and pelagic schooling fish, such as eulachon and Pacific herring. As whiting grow larger, fish make up a greater part of their diet.
• Many fish-eating species, such as lingcod and Humboldt squid, prey on Pacific whiting. Sablefish, albacore, pollock, Pacific cod, rockfish, sharks, and marine mammals also feed on Pacific whiting.

• Pacific whiting is found off the West Coast from Southern Baja California and the Gulf of California to the Gulf of Alaska.

• The coastal stock of Pacific whiting is managed through the bilateral Pacific Whiting Agreement between the United States and Canada.
  • The agreement allocates a harvest quota to American and Canadian fisheries. The United States is allocated nearly 74 percent of the annual quota and Canada the remaining 26 percent.
• NOAA Fisheries and the Pacific Fishery Management Council manage the Pacific whiting fishery on the West Coast, in U.S. federal waters (3 to 200 miles offshore).
• Managed under the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan:
  • Permits and limited entry to the fishery.
  • Certain seasons and areas are closed to fishing.
  • Gear restrictions and area closures help reduce bycatch and impacts on habitat.
  • Managers use annual harvest quotas to regulate the coastwide catch of Pacific whiting.
  • There are several sectors of the U.S. whiting fishery, and managers divide allowable catch among them. Sectors include:
    • Non-tribal catcher boats delivering to shore-based processing facilities.
    • Non-tribal catcher boats delivering to at-sea mothership processors.
    • Non-tribal vessels that both catch and process the catch at sea. 
    • Tribal harvesters.
  • The shore-based trawl fishery, which includes vessels targeting Pacific whiting, is managed under the trawl rationalization catch share program that includes:
    • Catch limits based on the population status of each fish stock and divided into shares that are allocated to individual fishermen or groups.
    • Provisions that allow fishermen to decide how and when to catch their share.
    • Total catch accounting and 100 percent observer coverage.
• The Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative was established in 1997 by fishing companies owning trawlers in the catcher/processor sector of the fishery.
  • They allocate their catch quota among cooperative members to allow them to use the quota more efficiently. The result is a less wasteful, more environmentally friendly fishery that produces a higher quality product..  

• In 2019, commercial landings of Pacific whiting totaled more than 697.5 million pounds and were valued at more than $64.6 million, according to the NOAA Fisheries commercial fishing landings database. These figures may not match other agency sources of data due to confidential information.
• Gear types, habitat impacts, and bycatch:
  • Mid-water trawls are primarily used to catch Pacific whiting.
  • Mid-water trawling has minimal impact on habitat and low incidental catch of other species.
  • Fishermen follow a number of regulations to reduce potential bycatch in the fishery.      
    • Mesh on the narrow, back end (codend) of their nets must be at least 3 inches to prevent bycatch of small fish.
    • Regulations restrict where fishermen may harvest Pacific whiting to reduce bycatch of Chinook salmon.
    • Each sector’s catch is restricted by limits on bycatch of Chinook salmon and depleted rockfish species.
    • There is 100 percent observer monitoring on at-sea processors and catcher vessels.
• Recreational fishermen do not target Pacific whiting but sometimes catch them incidentally while fishing for other groundfish and salmon.