Yelloweye rockfish declared recovered, with limited harvest eyed for 2027

Yelloweye rockfish have joined canary, widow and bocaccio rockfish on the West Coast's list of recovered groundfish, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Oct. 27. The Pacific Fishery Management Council has recommended that the National Marine Fisheries Service declare the stock rebuilt in 2026. New stock assessments show it is back to 40 percent of its size before heavy fishing through the 1990s, and it got there years earlier than projected.

The species collapsed and was declared a federal disaster in the early 2000s. ODFW credits 25 years of anglers and commercial boats steering clear of yelloweye, habitat protections for juveniles and bycatch rules. It also credits wider use of descending devices to return deep-water fish to depth, and the long-leader rockfish gear developed with Oregon fishermen Bob Hannah and John Holloway.

Managers plan to reopen slowly. The proposal for Oregon's recreational fishery is to allow one yelloweye in May. Commercial limits would stay very low, and there would be a coastwide cap of 116 metric tons in 2027. Lynn Mattes, ODFW's Marine Fisheries Section Manager, said the catch target is set 20 percent below what could be allowed. She added that retained fish would give biologists more biological data than they have had in years.

Yelloweye can live more than 100 years, mature late and bear live young. Those traits made the stock easy to overharvest and slow to rebuild.

Photo: Ryan Fields with a yelloweye rockfish. Credit: ODFW.

This is a The Gillnet news desk summary, not a reprint.

Source: ODFW — Yelloweye Rockfish Declared Recovered (Oct. 27, 2026).