The PWCC Home Page

CURRENT NEWS:

·         Pacific whiting featured on the new National Marine Fisheries Service seafood information page FishWatch

·         Pacific whiting fishery receives MSC certification

·         PWCC featured in Environmental Defense's assessment of Limited Access Privilege Programs

·         NMFS profiles the PWCC in the document -- Design and Use of Limited Access Privilege Programs

Welcome to the Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative’s (PWCC) website.  Our site provides information about PWCC and our member companies [About PWCC], and the Pacific whiting fishery [Fishery].  Detailed information about research projects [Research] and bycatch avoidance initiatives [Catch Management] sponsored by PWCC is also provided.

The Pacific whiting fishery in U.S. and Canadian waters is governed by the Pacific Hake Agreement.  The Hake Agreement became law on January 12, 2007 when President Bush signed the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Reauthorization Act of 2006.  The U.S. and Canada are currently implementing provisions of the Hake Agreement, including appointments to various technical, management, and advisory committees.  During the implementation phase, the whiting fishery is being managed in accordance with provisions in the Agreement, most notably the harvest sharing framework that allocates 73.88% of the annual harvest to U.S. fisheries and 26.12% to Canadian fisheries.

In the U.S., the whiting fishery is managed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), specifically the NMFS-Northwest Region and the NMFS-Northwest Fisheries Science Center including the At-Sea Hake Observer Program and the West Coast Groundfish Observer Program

Each year, the at-sea fishery (comprised of catcher/processor and mothership sectors) starts on May 15th.   The primary shoreside fishery opens June 15th.

At the March 2011 Pacific Council meeting, the Council’s Scientific and Statistical Committee (SSC) reviewed the 2011 Pacific whiting stock assessment.  The SSC recommended use of the assessment results, which estimated the whiting biomass was at 126 percent of its unfished biomass in 2011.  The Council adopted the Pacific whiting stock assessment (Stewart et al., 2011) recommended by the STAR panel and the SSC.  After consideration of additional input from Council advisory bodies and public comment, the Council adopted a coastwide (U.S. plus Canada) OFL of 973,700 mt for 2011 and a coastwide ACL of 393,751 mt.  The U.S. share of the OFL is 719,370 mt (or 73.88 percent of the coastwide OFL). The U.S. share of the ACL is 290,903 mt (or 73.88 percent of the coastwide ACL).

Conservation of the Pacific whiting resource and associated species is paramount to the PWCC.  Since 1999, the PWCC has conducted an annual survey of juvenile Pacific whiting off the west coast to help estimate the future abundance of the resource.  This survey is a cooperative effort between the PWCC and the NMFS-Northwest Fisheries Science Center.   In recent years, the survey has also been conducted in coordination with the NMFS-Southwest Fisheries Science Center's juvenile rockfish survey.  This collaborative research provides the only index of abundance for West Coast juvenile rockfish and whiting, and has become a key component of west coast groundfsh stock assessments.

Recently, Pacific whiting was featured on the new NMFS seafood information page FishWatch.  The NMFS FishWatch site provides consumers “the most accurate and timely information available on the sustainability of U.S. seafood fisheries.”  In addition to stock status and fishery management information, the site also provides nutritional and other information for consumers to consider when making seafood choices.  NMFS states – “Population levels of Pacific whiting are high, and no overfishing is occurring.”  “Biomass of the coastal stock is 80% of the biomass needed to support maximum sustainable yield.”  “There are few habitat concerns in the Pacific whiting fishery, given that pelagic trawls have very little bottom habitat impact.”  “Whiting is a good source of selenium, vitamin B, magnesium, and protein.”

 

Updated July 21, 2011