Groundfish is a commonly used term for fish that live on or around the ocean floor. The Maritime Museum and Heritage Center in Newport, Oregon has a display on the groundfish fishery in Oregon.
In the 1880s, trawling for groundfish off the Oregon coast began and by the mid-1960s, fishing fleets from Russia, Japan, Korea, and Germany were fishing in the area. In 1976, the Magnuson-Stevens Act eliminated the foreign fleets by establishing a 200-mile Exclusive Fishing Zone. The law also included big tax incentives and subsidies to increase the domestic catch. This led to over fishing and in 1990, the fishery was declared a federal disaster. Many people thought that the fish and the fishery would never recover. However, the fishery recovered, and four of the nine species have been declared rebuilt. In 2014, the trawl fishery was certified as sustainable by the Marine Stewardship Council.
What it took for the fishery to recover and become sustainable:
- About half of the trawl boats were permanently retired
- Quotas were reduced, and seasons shortened
- Innovations in net design led to greater selectivity and lighter impacts on the sea floor
- Federal fisheries observers on vessels ensured proper monitoring of discards
- Creation of Rockfish Conservation Areas closed thousands of square miles of the ocean to trawling
- A portion of the total catch is allocated to each boat, reducing discards
Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) is the largest long-term average catch that can be taken from a stock under prevailing environmental conditions. This concept was introduced in the Sustainable Fisheries Act of 1996 which mandates regular stock assessments of fish populations. Overfishing is a harvest rate that is higher than the MSY for that stock.
Today most commercial harvest of groundfish is done by trawling, a method of fishing by dragging a net through the water.
Some groundfish, such as sablefish (blackcod) and Pacific halibut, are harvested using a longline in which baited hooks on leaders are attached to a groundline that lies on the ocean bottom. The groundline is anchored at each end and marked by surface buoys, poles, and flags.
Groundfish can also be taken using pots which are attached to a groundline on the ocean floor.
Near shore hook and line are used for rockfish and lingcod.
The Pacific Maritime Museum and Heritage Center in Newport, Oregon, has a number of displays about Oregon’s groundfish.
Museums 101
Museums 101 is a series of photo tours of museum exhibits. More from this series:
Museums 101: Commercial Fishing (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Blacksmith Shop and Saddle Shop
Museums 101: The Fort Dalles Museum (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Burrows House Museum (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Fishing and Glass Net Floats (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Hood River Historical Museum (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: The Scots in Oregon (Photo Diary)
Museums 101: Under the Arctic (Photo Diary)