Pacific Council approves modest sablefish trip-limit increases and readies rollback of quillback depth restrictions

The Pacific Fishery Management Council on day two of its June meeting approved two in-season measures aimed at easing economic pressure on West Coast fixed-gear and open-access sablefish fishers and adopted a package of preparatory steps to scale back quillback-related restrictions in California if scientific review validates a revised assessment.

Under an agenda item on groundfish in-season adjustments (E3), the council approved a staff-and-advisory-team recommended, precautionary increase to sablefish trip limits for limited entry fixed gear (LEFG) and open access (OA) sectors north and south of 36° N latitude. The increases, described by the Groundfish Management Team (GMT) and supported by the Groundfish Advisory Subpanel (GAP), were modeled to expand opportunity while keeping projected impacts to shortspine thornyhead within the non-trawl allocation. The council enacted the recommendation by voice vote; the motion was made by Marcy (Marci) Remco, seconded by Mark Guralnick, and passed unanimously.

GMT staff told the council that some vessels in both the limited-entry and open-access sectors have already hit more than 90% of their status-quo sablefish trip limits in recent bimonthly periods, and that 2025 landings and prices show mixed signals. The GMT used a range of price scenarios based on 2023–24 price patterns and found option 1 — the conservative increase requested by industry in several areas — to be the best balance between increased utilization and a precautionary approach to shortspine thornyhead mortality.

GAP members and industry representatives who testified during the E3 presentation told the council that quota trading and bycatch constraints from recent ACL reductions for canary, shortspine thornyhead and petrale sole have pinched shore-based trawl and non-trawl processors and that higher sablefish trip limits would help some vessels access markets more reliably. The GAP recommended option 1 across the L EFG and…