Get Hooked on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife Website!

For the latest information on fishing regulations, marine resources, and news affecting our California coastline, your first stop should be the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website. This comprehensive information source contains well over 2,000 marine-related web pages and documents readily available to the public. If you are new to this website, we invite you to explore the valuable resources

California’s Recreational Pacific Halibut Allocation to Increase For 2015

Sampler with Pacific halibut

The Pacific Fishery Management Council has made recommendations to increase the California Pacific halibut fishery allocation beginning in 2015 in response to greater interest in the northern California fishery, and new information indicating a higher abundance in California than when the formal Catch Sharing Plan (CSP) was originally adopted.

Pacific halibut is allocated among users on the West Coast (known as Area 2A) through a CSP that was developed in the late 1980s. Area 2A sectors include the recreational fisheries in Washington, Oregon and California,

Snapshot: CDFW and Moss Landing Student Work Together to Estimate California Halibut Age-at-Length

12-year-old California halibut otolith section

This summer, staff from CDFW’s Northern and Central California Finfish Research and Management Project assisted Moss Landing Marine Laboratories graduate student Cheryl Barnes in the preparation and age determination of 452 California halibut otoliths (ear bones). The age determinations from this collaborative work provide valuable information to fishery managers by greatly expanding the Project’s long-term, ongoing age-length database for California halibut.

Reminder: Recreational Pacific Halibut Season Closed in August

Technician holding Pacific halibut.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) wants to remind anglers that recreational fishing for Pacific halibut (Hippoglossus stenolepis) is closed for the month of August. The season will reopen on Sept. 1 and run through Oct. 31.

Pacific halibut management is a complex, multi-tiered process involving CDFW, other state agencies, and federal and international partners.  The closure was recommended by the Pacific Fishery Management Council following increased harvest of recreational Pacific halibut in California over the last few years, and is intended to insure the total coastwide harvest remains within the overall harvest limit for the management area (Washington, Oregon and California).   For more details regarding Pacific halibut management, please visit the CDFW website.

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post by Caroline Mcknight, CDFW Environmental Scientist  ♦ CDFW photo by Ed Roberts III

 

Get Hooked on the CDFW Website!

For the latest information on fishing regulations, marine resources, and news affecting our California coastline, your first stop should be the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) website. This comprehensive information source contains well over 2,000 marine-related web pages and documents readily available to the public. If you are new to this website, we invite you to explore the valuable resources we have created. For those who have already visited the site, be sure to check back regularly, since new features, updates, and news releases are added every week. Here are some recent, noteworthy updates: