SAVE
BOCACCIO ROCKFISH
THE
HOW IS THE ROCKFISH BEING HELPED?
EEZ
The United States only controls a certain portion of the ocean, called its exclusive economic zone (EEZ). This is a 4.4-million-square-mile zone that extends 3 to 200 nautical miles off the coast of the U.S. The country must do everything it can to protect this zone, leaving only small portions for fishing. The state of our ecosystem depends on government intervention, because, no matter how much we dream, there will be nothing left to fish in a few decades if we don’t protect our coastlines (Kilduff, 2014).
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Puget Sound
Actions and steps have been taken to preserve bocaccio habitats and protect the species in the Puget Sound area; over a total of 1,000 square miles protected! 590 square miles of near shore habitat and 414 of offshore/deepwater bocaccio habitat have been protected through an act by The National Marine Fisheries Service. Along with protecting the bocaccio’s habitat, rockfish conservation areas (RCA’s) have granted time for the species to rehabilitate and reproduce without facing any outside danger from humans. (Kilduff, 2014).
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RCAs
There is good news when it comes to protecting the bocaccio. There are currently rockfish conservation areas (RCAs) in place with over 1,000 square miles of habitat protected areas, throughout the west coast but mainly in Puget Sound. Fishing of any kind in these areas is not allowed but it can differ, depending on what type of fishing gear is being used and, starting January 1, 2020, the trawl RCA is reopening about 2,000 square miles for fishing with ground fish bottom trawl gear (NOAA Fisheries, 2019). The goal of the RCA's is to aid the bocaccio into eventually reproducing enough that their population is restored. Enforcing these areas can be a challenge and there are few people and limited resources that are being used to prevent people from fishing so we need to continuously raise awareness in order for RCA’s to stay intact so that rockfish can flourish again!
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United States Exclusive Economic Zone
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Recovery Plan
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has prepared a rockfish recovery plan that is focused on restoring the populations of the Bocaccio Rockfish in the Puget Sound area. The main goals of the plan are to eliminate threats to rockfish from fisheries, and eliminate threats to rockfish habitats, as well as restoring degraded rockfish habitats. The plan addresses all of the identified threats to the bocaccio, but needs more support from the government for the plan to truly succeed. (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2017)
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Government Intervention
Bottom Trawling: Trawling is prohibited in 25% of NOAA’s Essential Fish Habitat (all types of aquatic habitat where fish live and reproduce) in waters deeper than 5400 feet. While this is significant, the number should increase, protecting more threatened and endangered species like the rockfish (Ocean Wise, 2019). Although this number is significant, it should continue to increase. One of the main ways to save bocaccio, as well as thousands of other species off our coasts, from needless catch and murder, is to decrease trawling on our ocean floors.
Habitat Protection: 414 miles of deepwater habitat off the coast of Puget Sound was protected by the National Marine Fisheries Service in 2014 for bocaccio, yelloweye and canary rockfish. This area included kelp forests near the shore where young could be reared and deeper waters for shelter, reproduction and foraging among adult rockfish (Kilduff, 2014).
“Saving rockfish from extinction requires protecting some of the most important places they live, and that’s exactly what’s happening now in the Puget Sound. These habitat protections will not only give rockfish a fighting chance at survival but will help all of the animals that live in these waters.”
-Catherine Kilduff, Center for Biological Diversity (Kilduff, 2014)