Rockfish season cut drastically short

Not open until July 16 next year for Sonoma and Pacifica.
https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=204740&fbclid=IwAR0xczZ8Bh7ygH3RGi3xgJ4bDotcUVMszSjSlDbR67MLolSZf8-mfSBc7dk&mibextid=Zxz2cZ

The resource needs a brake. Better late than never.

Can we open Central to the AOTY fish able regions? 

Ocean whitefish would be open year-round

 


Interesting... I guess we will fish for perch, dabs, halibut, and whitefish until July then...  I be the bay halibut will be targeted heavily next year too.

I wonder why they're even allowing a 1-fish bag limit for quillbacks and coppers. If they're that overfished to delay the season opening by two months, why allow retention of them at all? Having no retention of these species in exchange for the season opening in May instead of July seems more palatable. I guess their models suggest there'd be too much quillback/copper mortality via bycatch of these species if the season opened in May instead of July? From my own experience, quills and cops don't suffer much from barotrauma and seem to swim off fine compared to other species.

I'm also surprised they're not making descending devices mandatory for boats partaking in the >50 fathom fishery. It seems like you're free to drop your gear right to the bottom, which is likely to mean a lot of yelloweye bycatch. Pretty much guarantee those YEs will require descending to keep them from turning into bird food.

I'm also surprised they're not making descending devices mandatory for boats partaking in the >50 fathom fishery. It seems like you're free to drop your gear right to the bottom, which is likely to mean a lot of yelloweye bycatch. Pretty much guarantee those YEs will require descending to keep them from turning into bird food.

I remember when I used to go on the cattle boats out to Farallon Islands, they would leave a massive trail of dead yellow eyes everywhere.  Such a shame that these boats don't use descenders just because they're not required to.

Seems like they should be required, and should also expect to be fined if they are checked and have floaters all around them since they didn't use it.