Compliance Guides for West Coast Groundfish

These documents serve as Small Entity Compliance Guides, complying with section 212 of the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act of 1996. These Compliance Guides are published to summarize specific rulemakings and do not necessarily reflect current regulations. For the most up-to-date regulations, refer to the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations.

Common acronyms on this page:

• LEFG - limited entry fixed gear
• OA - open access
• IFQ - individual fishing quota
• RCA - Rockfish Conservation Area
• EFH - Essential Fish Habitat
• EFHCA - Essential Fish Habitat Conservation Area
• FMP - Fishery Management Plan

Biennial Harvest Specifications and Management Measures (all sectors)

Amendment 33 and the 2025-26 Harvest Specifications and Commercial and Recreational Management Measures (pdf)

NEW:

• Permit requirement for the directed open access fishery
• Descending device requirement for the California recreational fishery
• Modifications to continuous transit requirements in the California recreational fishery
• Shortspine thornyhead allocation framework (trawl and non-trawl commercial sectors)
• California quillback rockfish rebuilding plan (non-trawl commercial and recreational sectors)

Amendment 30 and the 2023-24 Harvest Specifications and Commercial and Recreational Management Measures (pdf)

NEW:

• Allowance to fish inside the Non-Trawl RCA with approved non-bottom contact gear (non-trawl commercial sector)
• Permanent extension of the LEFG primary sablefish season end date from October 31 to December 31
• Sorting requirement for shortbelly rockfish (non-trawl commercial sector)
• Annual catch targets for quillback rockfish and copper rockfish off California (all sectors)
• Use of Recreational RCA lines to prohibit recreational fishing seaward of an RCA line rather than shoreward of an RCA line
• Use of Block Area Closures to control catch of groundfish by midwater trawl and bottom trawl vessels

Amendment 29 and the 2021-22 Harvest Specifications and Commercial and Recreational Management Measures (pdf)

NEW:

• Removal of the gear restrictions for the LEFG and OA fisheries targeting stocks in the Other Flatfish complex inside the RCA south of 42° N lat.
• Allowance to fish with hook-and-line gear (excluding bottom longline and dinglebar gear) inside the Non-Trawl RCA between 40°10′ N lat. and 46°16′ N lat. and between the 30- and 40-fm management lines (non-trawl commercial sector)
• Management line at 38°57.5′ N lat. (all sectors)
• Measure to allow longleader gear fishing and “all-depth” Pacific halibut fishing on the same trip in the Oregon recreational fishery
• Increase for the yellowtail rockfish trip limit in the salmon troll fishery north of 40°10′ N lat. and removal of the yellowtail to salmon ratio

2019–2020 Biennial Harvest Specifications for Pacific Coast Groundfish (pdf)

NEW:

• Salmon bycatch mitigation measures (all sectors)
• Modifications to depth restrictions in the Western Cowcod Conservation Area (non-trawl commercial and recreational)
• Modifications to discard mortality rates for IFQ lingcod and sablefish
• Removal of Shorebased IFQ Program daily vessel limits
• Removal of the automatic authority on at-sea set-asides for darkblotched rockfish and Pacific ocean perch
• Continuation of the IFQ adaptive management pass through
• Modification of the retention ratios for incidentally caught lingcod in the salmon troll fishery

Pacific Whiting Annual Harvest Specifications

• 2026 Pacific Whiting Harvest Specifications and 2024 Tribal Allocation (pdf)
• 2025 Pacific Whiting Harvest Specifications and 2024 Tribal Allocation (pdf)
• 2024 Pacific Whiting Harvest Specifications and 2024 Tribal Allocation (pdf)
• 2023 Pacific Whiting Harvest Specifications and 2023 Tribal Allocation (pdf)
• 2020 Harvest Specifications and Management Measures for Pacific Whiting, Cowcod, and Shortbelly Rockfish (pdf)

Trawl

• Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program (updated 2022) (pdf)
• Pacific Whiting Utilization in the At-Sea Sectors (pdf)
• Salmon Bycatch Minimization Measures 2021 (pdf)
• Amendment 21-4: Shorebased Trawl Sector Post-season Quota Trading (pdf)
• Streamlined regulations for vessels fishing with groundfish bottom and midwater trawl gear (pdf)
• General Provisions Affecting the Pacific Whiting IFQ Fishery (pdf)
• Cost Recovery in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program (pdf)
• Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Program Covering Program Details (pdf)
• Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Program: Changes for 2012 and Beyond (PIE 1 Rule) (pdf)
• Groundfish Trawl Catch Share Program: Application Process (pdf)
• Ownership Interest Forms and Review of Qualifying Data (pdf)
• Divestiture of Excess Quota Shares: Small Entity Compliance Guide (pdf)
• Updated gear regulations in the groundfish fishery including revisions to the chafing (pdf)
• Pacific Coast Groundfish Trawl Rationalization Program Program Improvement and Enhancement Rule (PIE) (pdf)

Non-Trawl

Commercial, including limited entry non-trawl (sablefish and non-sablefish) and directed open access

• Guide for Participating in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Open Access Fishery Sector (pdf) (updated January 2025)
• Federal Non-Trawl Logbook Requirement for the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery (pdf) (updated January 2025)
• Sablefish Regulations: Electronic Fish Tickets (pdf)
• Seabird Bycatch Minimization Measures (pdf)
• Sablefish Permit Stacking Program (pdf)

Permits and Monitoring (all sectors)

• Vessel Movement, Monitoring, and Declaration Management (pdf)
• Observer and Catch Monitor Provider Permitting Process in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery April 2015 (pdf)
• Observer Safety: Observer Providers and Vessels in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery April 2015 (pdf)
• Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Vessel Monitoring Program
• Joint Registration, the Limited exemption to the Own-Hold rules, and other measures (pdf)

Closed Area Management (all sectors)

Cordell Bank Area Revisions (June 2026)

• Removed the Cordell Bank Groundfish Conservation Area
• Implemented the Cordell Bank Groundfish Exclusion Area

Amendment 32 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP: Modifications to Non-Trawl Area Management Measures (January 2024)

• Moved the seaward boundary of the Non-Trawl RCA from 100 fm to 75 fm off Oregon and California for non-trawl commercial fisheries
• Removed the Cowcod Conservation Area boundaries in the Southern California Bight for non-trawl commercial and recreational fisheries
• Implemented Groundfish Exclusion Areas in the Southern California Bight for non-trawl commercial and recreational fisheries

Amendment 28 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP: Essential Fish Habitat Conservation Areas (January 2020)

• Established the Deep-Water Ecosystem Conservation Area closure for all sectors (>3,500 meters)
• Added 27 new bottom trawl EFHCAs and modified the boundaries of 19 other bottom trawl EFHCAs
• Removed the groundfish bottom Trawl RCA off of Oregon and California
• Established ability to restrict commercial fishing with certain gears within Block Area Closures, defined by boundary lines approximating depth contours and latitude lines.
• Added EFH designations, HAPCs, and EFHCAs to our web based mapping tool at https://www.habitat.noaa.gov/apps/efhmapper/

Amendment 19 to the Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP: Essential Fish Habitat Conservation Area Closures and Gear Prohibitions (June 2006)

• Defined EFH for all managed species in the Pacific Coast Groundfish FMP.
• Defined Habitat Areas of Particular Concern for all managed species.
• Established 51 EFHCAs prohibiting bottom trawl or bottom contact gear off the coasts of Washington, Oregon, and California

All U.S. West Coast Fisheries

Regulations Prohibiting Commercial Vessels from Directly Fishing for Unfished Forage Fish (pdf)