Onboard sampling of the rockfish and lingcod commerical passenger fishing vessel industry in northern and central California, 1992

In 1992 fishery technicians sampled 230 commercial passenger fishing vessel (CPFV) trips targeting rockfish and lingcod from the port areas of Fort Bragg, Bodega Bay, San Francisco, Monterey, and Morro Bay. The skippers of 44 vessels, and 2,190 anglers, cooperated in the study. Species composition by port area and month, catch-per-unit-effort, mean length, and length frequency of lingcod and the 18 most frequently observed rockfish species are presented, as well as fishing effort relative to time, depth, and distance from port. Total catch estimates based on unadjusted and adjusted logbook records are summarized.Average catch of kept fish per angler day was 12.6 and average catch of kept fish per angler hour was 4.0. A continuing trend of an increasing frequency of trips to deep (> 40 fm) locations was observed in the Bodega Bay, San Francisco, and Monterey areas. Bodega Bay and San Francisco showed the highest frequency of trips to distant locations.Sixty species comprised of 29,731 fish were observed caught during the study. Rockfish comprised 93.5% by number of the total observed catch. The five most frequently observedspecies were blue, yellowtail, widow and rosy rockfishes, and bocaccio, with lingcod ranking eighth.CPFV angler success, as determined by catch per angler hour, generally increased in all ports in 1992 compared to previous 1988-91 data (Reilly et al. 1993). However, port-specific areas of major concern were identified for chilipepper, lingcod, and black rockfish, and to alesser extent brown, canary, vermilion, yelloweye, widow and greenspotted rockfishes. These areas of concern included steadily declining catch rate, steadily declining mean length, and/or a high percentage of sexually immature fish in the sampled catch.Recent sampling of the commercial hook-and-line fishery in northern and central California indicates that most rockfishes taken by CPFV anglers are also harvested commercially. (105pp.)

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Wilson, Carrie E., Halko, Laura A., Wilson-Vandenberg, Deb, Reilly, Paul N.
Format: monograph biblioteca
Language:English
Published: California Department of Fish and Game Marine Resources Division 1996
Subjects:Management, Fisheries, rockfish, lingcod, sport fishing, California,
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1834/18082
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