Red Hake
Red Hake
Urophycis chuss
Also Known As
Ling, Squirrel hake
Quick Facts
Region
New England/Mid-Atlantic,
Southeast
About the Species
The red hake fishery in the U.S. operates from Maine to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. Along with silver hake and offshore hake, it is a part of the small-mesh multispecies fishery, which is managed primarily through a series of exemptions from the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (or groundfish fishery). The directed commercial fishery is conducted with small-mesh trawl gear with a number of specific requirements to reduce bycatch of larger groundfish species. There are two stocks of red hake (northern and southern) which are managed accordingly. The market for small-mesh multispecies is human consumption and as bait. U.S. wild-caught red hake is a smart seafood choice because it is sustainably managed and responsibly harvested under U.S. regulations. Implementing regulations are found at 50 CFR part 648 subpart F.
Population
The northern stock is above its target population level. The southern stock is significantly below its target level and fishing rate promotes population growth. A rebuilding plan is being developed for the southern stock.
Fishing Rate
At recommended levels for the northern red hake stock. At levels to reduce overfishing for the southern red hake stock.
Habitat Impacts
Fishing gears used to harvest red hake have minimal impacts on habitat.
Bycatch
Raised-footrope trawls are required in designated areas when targeting hake to minimize bycatch of other species.
Population Status
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There are two stocks of red hake: Gulf of Maine/Northern Georges Bank and Southern Georges Bank/Mid Atlantic. According to the most recent stock assessments:
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The Gulf of Maine/Northern Georges Bank (northern) stock of red hake is not overfished and is not subject to overfishing (2017 stock assessment). Summary stock assessment information can be found on Stock SMART.
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The Southern Georges Bank/Mid Atlantic (southern) stock of red hake is overfished and subject to overfishing (2017 stock assessment). Summary stock assessment information can be found on Stock SMART.
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Appearance
- Red hake vary in color depending on their environment. Most tend to be a reddish brown to olive-brown color with pale tan spots on their sides and shades of white on their undersides.
- They are a member of the cod family and have a barbel (whisker) on their chin.
- Their dorsal fin is triangular, but their second dorsal and anal fins are long, continuous, and do not attach to the tail fin, much like an eel.
- They have a small head, but a large mouth with many small teeth.
Biology
- Red hake are a member of the cod family.
- They do not grow as large as white hake and normally reach a maximum size of 50 centimeters (20 inches) and 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds).
- Females are generally larger than males of the same age, and reach a maximum length of 63 centimeters (25 inches) and a weight of 3.6 kilograms (7.9 pounds).
- Although they generally do not live longer than 8 years, red hake have been recorded up to 14 years old.
- Red hake feed primarily on crustaceans such as decapods and rock crabs as well as fish such as haddock, silver hake, sea robins, sand lance, mackerel, and small red hake.
- Primary predators of red hake include spiny dogfish, cod, goosefish, and silver hake.
Where They Live
- Red hake are found in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean and range primarily from Newfoundland to North Carolina.
- They are most abundant from the western Gulf of Maine through Southern New England waters.
Fishery Management
- NOAA Fisheries and the New England Fishery Management Council manage the red hake fishery.
- Managed under the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan for Small Mesh Multispecies:
- Permitting requirements.
- A cap on the amount of groundfish bycatch that fishing vessels can take.
- Seasonal and spatial limitations on fishing with small mesh nets throughout the Gulf of Maine and Georges Bank.
- Trip limits by mesh size and area.
- In-season trip limit reductions and catch monitoring help prevent excessive catches.
- The small-mesh multispecies fishery is managed primarily through a series of exemptions from the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan. Exempted fisheries allow vessels to fish for specific species, such as red hake, in designated areas using mesh sizes smaller than the minimum mesh size allowed under the Regulated Mesh Area regulations.
Harvest
- Commercial fishery:
- The 2020 landings of red hake totaled 690,000 pounds, and were valued at $315,000, according to the NOAA Fisheries commercial fishing landings database.
- Red hake is part of the small-mesh multispecies management unit, along with silver hake and offshore hake. This three-species complex is sometimes marketed together as whiting.
- Red hake are usually a bycatch species in the small-mesh fisheries that target whiting (silver hake) and squid.
- Low value and limited domestic market for red hake result in high percentages of discard which account for about 60% of the annual catch.
- Red hake are frequently used as bait in the lobster and tuna fisheries. Some are also sold as fillets.
- Gear types, habitat impacts, and bycatch:
- Fishermen using small-mesh trawl gear to catch red hake must comply with a number of specific requirements to reduce bycatch of larger groundfish species.
- In designated areas, fishermen are required to use raised-footrope trawls, which are designed to keep the net off the bottom to reduce the bycatch of flatfish and other species.
- Recreational fishery:
- Recreational fishermen do not target red hake but sometimes catch them incidentally while fishing for other groundfish.
- There are currently no restrictions on possession, size, or gear-type for red hake caught recreationally in federal waters.
- There are no specific areas for the recreational fishery.
Featured News
Exempted Fishing
What is an Exempted Fishery?
Exempted fisheries allow vessels to fish for specific species without being subject to certain northeast (NE) multispecies regulations, including days-at-sea, provided the bycatch of regulated species is minimal. To be approved and implemented, exemption programs must have demonstrated that incidental catch of NE multispecies is less than five percent of the total catch, by weight, and that the exemption will not jeopardize fishing mortality objectives.
Small-Mesh Multispecies Fishery Exemptions
The small-mesh multispecies (hakes) fishery is primarily managed under a series of fishery exemptions to the NE Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP). As a result, the majority of the fishery (specific possession limits, gear restrictions, and other management measures) is determined by the exemption area or regulated mesh area being fished.
Within the Gulf of Maine (GOM) and Georges Bank (GB) Regulated Mesh Areas (RMA) there are five specific exempted fishing areas for small-mesh multispecies/whiting (see map at the bottom of the page), and red hake may be harvested throughout the entire Southern New England (SNE) and Mid-Atlantic (MA) RMAs, under specific requirements.
More specific details for each area can be found on the linked pages within the table below. A Letter of Authorization (LOA) is required to participate in some of these exempted fishing areas. LOAs can be obtained from our Permits Office at (978) 282-8438, or online by visiting our permits site.
Small-Mesh Multispecies Exemption Areas
| Area Name | Season | LOA Reqiuired? |
|---|---|---|
| GOM Grate Raised Footrope Trawl Whiting Fishery Exemption Area | July 1 - November 30 | No |
| Cultivator Shoal Whiting Fishery Exemption Area | June 15 - October 31 | Yes |
| Small Mesh Areas 1 & 2 | SMA 1: July 15 - November 15 SMA 2: January 1 - June 30 |
No |
| Raised Footrope Trawl Exempted Whiting Fishery Areas (Cape Cod) | September 1 - November 20 / December 31 | Yes |
| SNE Exemption Area | Year round | No |
| Mid-Atlantic Exemption Area | Year round | No |
Management Overview
The small-mesh multispecies fishery is managed by the New England Fishery Management Council, with NOAA Fisheries serving as the implementing body for rules and regulations within the fishery.
The fishery is managed as five stocks of three species of hakes: Northern silver hake, southern silver hake, northern red hake, southern red hake, and offshore hake. Silver hake and offshore hake are often grouped together and collectively referred to as "whiting.â
The fishing year runs from May 1 through April 30; however, because this fishery primarily operates through exemptions from the Northeast Multispecies Fishery Management Plan, the timing of most targeted fishing is highly dependent upon the seasons of specific exemption areas. Specific possession limits, gear restrictions, and other management measures are also often determined by the exemption area or regulated mesh area being fished.
The northern hake stocks are found within the Gulf of Maine (GOM) and northern Georges Bank (GB) regulated mesh areas (RMA), and the southern stocks are within the southern GB, southern New England (SNE) and Mid-Atlantic (MA) RMAs. For more information on exempted fishing areas, visit the Exempted Fishing tab on this page.
Control Date for the Small-Mesh Multispecies Fishery: November 28, 2012.
Specifications/Quotas
The Small-Mesh Multispecies Fishery Management Plan (FMP) requires the annual specification of catch and harvest limits for up to three years at a time. If specifications are not in place at the start of the fishing year, the existing specifications roll over until new regulations are finalized.
Current Red Hake Specifications (May 1, 2019-April 30, 2020)
| Stock | Northern Red | Southern Red |
|---|---|---|
| Overfishing Limit (OFL) | 840 mt | 1,150 mt |
| Acceptable Biological Catch (ABC) | 721 mt | 1,060 mt |
| Annual Catch Limit (ACL) | 685 mt | 1,007 mt |
| Total Allowable Landings (TAL) | 274 mt | 305 mt |
Inseason Actions
If 90 percent of the southern red hake TAL, or 37.9 percent of the northern red hake TAL is projected to be reached or exceeded, the possession limit of that stock will be reduced to the incidental level of 400 lb per trip for the remainder of the fishing year.
Accountability Measures (AM)
If a small-mesh multispecies ACL is exceeded in a given fishing year, the inseason accountability measure adjustment trigger for that stock will be reduced in subsequent fishing years by one percent for each one percent by which the ACL was exceeded.
For example: If the inseason adjustment trigger is 90 percent, and the ACL is exceeded by 5 percent, the adjustment trigger for the stock whose ACL was exceeded would be reduced to 85 percent for subsequent fishing years.
Regulatory History
- 1987 – Amendment 1 decreased the area for the whiting exempted fishery, and made several other changes to the NE multispecies fishery.
- 1991 – Amendment 4 incorporated silver hake and red hake into the NE Multispecies FMP, and established the Cultivator Shoals Experimental Whiting Fishery.
- 1994 – Framework Adjustment 6 aimed to reduce catch of juvenile whiting in Cultivator Shoals by increasing the minimum mesh size from 2.5” to 3” for that area.
- 1995 – Framework Adjustment 9 established Small-Mesh Areas 1 and 2 and their seasons.
- 1996 – Amendment 7 established additional bycatch species in Cultivator Shoals Exemption Area, as well as many other catch limits and management measures within the NE Multispecies FMP.
- 2000 – Amendment 12 established essential fish habitat (EFH) designations, differential possession limits based on mesh size, a transfer-at-sea provision, year 4 default measures, and included offshore hake into the NE Multispecies FMP.
- 2000 – Framework Adjustment 32 modified the whiting mesh size/possession limit enrollment program and allowed the use of a net strengthener.
- 2000 – Framework Adjustment 35 established the Cape Cod Bay Raised Footrope Trawl area and season.
- 2002 – Modifications to Amendment 12 delayed year 4 default measures.
- 2002 – Modification to Framework 35 modified boundaries and season of Cape Cod Bay Raised Footrope Trawl Area, added another area East of Cape Cod, and adjusted area seasons.
- 2003 – Framework Adjustment 37 eliminated the year 4 default measures, adjusted area seasons, possession limits and species allowed for retention, and clarified the transfer-at-sea provisions.
- 2003 – Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking established new small-mesh multispecies control date of March 25, 2003.
- 2003 – Framework Adjustment 38 established Inshore GOM Whiting Exemption Area, required grate raised footrope trawl, and adjusted area possession limits, species for retention, and seasons.
- 2006 – Amendment 14 scoping measures included for consideration included: Limited entry for commercial vessels, hard total allowable catch (TAC), dedicated access privileges, and recreational measures.
- 2006 – Advanced notice of proposed rulemaking reaffirmed March 25, 2003, control date.
- 2012 – Secretarial Amendment to establish annual catch limits and accountability measures for the small-mesh multispecies fishery.
- 2013 – Amendment 19 modified management measures in the small-mesh multispecies fishery; including the accountability measures, the year-round possession limits, and total allowable landings process.
Science Overview
The most recent stock assessment update for red hake was in 2017, where the northern stock was declared not overfished and overfishing was not occurring; but the southern stock was found to be overfished with overfishing occurring. The next assessment for both stocks of red hake is scheduled for 2019.
Research, Surveys, & Data
Red Hake Stock Statuses Based on Most Recent (2017) Stock Assessment
| Stock | Northern Red | Southern Red |
|---|---|---|
| Biomass (B) | 5.13 kg/tow (2015-2017) | 0.38 kg/tow (2015-2017) |
| BThreshold | 1.27 kg/tow | 0.51 kg/tow |
| Overfished Definition | The stock is overfished when B (the 3-year moving average of the spring survey weight per tow) < ½ BMSY Proxy (defined as the average observed from 1980 – 2010) | |
| Overfished? | No | Yes |
| Fishing Mortality Rate (F) | 0.09 kt/kg (2014-2016) | 4.03 kt/kg (2014-2016) |
| FThreshold | 0.163 kt/kg | 3.038 kt/kg |
| Overfishing Definition | Overfishing occurs when the ratio between catch and spring survey biomass exceeds the overfishing threshold (derived from AIM analyses from 1980-2009) | |
| Overfishing? | No | Yes |
| Current Rebuilding Program? | No rebuilding plan is in place | Rebuilding plan is under development |
| Next Stock Assessment | Assessment scheduled for 2019 | Assessment scheduled for 2019 |
