PACIFIC FISHERY MANAGEMENT COUNCIL

The PFMC has made decisions on the 2024 ocean salmon season. Once again salmon fisheries off the coast of California will be closed and fisheries off Oregon will be significantly constrained. Fisheries off Washington will have a chinook quota similar to last year and a smaller coho quota compared to last year. More info can be found here: https://lnkd.in/gDKhSzHi

2023 is a wrap and 2024 is already upon us. As I look back on 2023 and the work of the PFMC I’m struck by the many very consequential matters that were taken up by the Council. - Early in the year the Council voted to enact some of the most sweeping salmon fishery closures ever seen off California and Oregon. In talking with fishermen they say they could see this coming. While the decision and impacts are significant, mostly everyone was on the same page regarding the need for those restrictions. - In the middle of the year we learned that North Pacific bluefin tuna are likely to be rebuilt in 2024. This is in no small part to the efforts of the Council’s former chair Dorothy Lowman and the partnerships she’s been able to forge with counterparts in Japan and elsewhere. These partnerships have led to international efforts and a major conservation success story. I don’t know why this isn’t in the news. - After 8(?) years of working on the topic we refer to as “gear switching” the Council has finally adopted a preliminary preferred alternative. This is a very controversial issue concerning the design of the groundfish IFQ program and has taken substantial time and effort on the part of the Council. We are scheduled for a final decision in April. - This council has some of the best stock assessment scientists in the world helping to support it, and the Council has not shied away from making tough conservation decisions. Yet late last year the Council declined to adopt a stock assessment for quillback rockfish that had been reviewed a couple of times. Instead will have a special review of that assessment later this month. This is very out of the ordinary. I haven’t spoken to anyone - be it Council members, scientists, stakeholders, or my fellow staff - who are happy with the current place we find ourselves in. We all agree on one thing however—we shouldn’t be here. One effort I plan to take on this year is a diagnostic exercise to figure out what went wrong with our process for considering and adopting the quillback assessment so that we don’t end up here again. - Finally, we continue to invest a substantial amount of time on marine planning matters. Plans for wind energy development continue moving forward, but Congress and the Oregon legislature are watching closely and are interested in the many comment letters that have been developed by the Council. Also on the marine planning front is a new Sanctuary that will soon be in place off central California. I’m proud of the relationships we have with west coast sanctuaries and the constructive engagement and respect we have for one another’s work. 2024 promises to be another very interesting year. I’m looking forward to what it has in store.