It’s Simple: Better Fishing Rules Equals More Fish in the Sea

In recent years, new fishing regulations have been implemented and today, thanks to a stricter management, populations of rockfish along the West Coast of California, United States, have been rebuilt.

In 2000, the Pacific Fishery Management Council put in place regulations including large area closures, fishing quotas, harvest guidelines, gear modifications and retention limitations to achieve this fishery management success.

“The good news for 2021 is groundfish populations are rebounding,” says Caroline McKnight, Senior Environmental Scientist at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Of the eight stocks that were declared overfished in the early 2000s, all but one, yelloweye rockfish, has been declared rebuilt today.” 

Thanks to the management success and such rebounding of the fish populations, fishermen along the Northern and Central California coast will be able to fish deeper waters this April than they have in over twenty years.