Pacific hake (also known by its market name, whiting) is the most abundant groundfish species in the California
Current ecosystem and serves as a major forage fish to other fish as well as many fish-eating seabirds and marine
mammals such as the California sea lion, Steller sea lion, northern fur seal, elephant seal, harbor seal, as well as
dolphins, porpoises, and some whales.
Fishery
The hake fishery is the largest fishery on the West Coast, reaching a record high of more than 360,000 tons
(~794 million lb) in 2005, despite concerns about the low abundance of the breeding stock and fears that the
fishery could crash like the California sardine fishery of old.
In 2006, the Pacific Council was warned by scientific advisers that setting the catch level at 269,069 metric
tons would result in the population being overfished (below 25% of unfished population size) within two years.
The council ignored advice and set it at that level, bowing to intense pressure from the hake fishing industry.
Management Issues
Studies of California sea lion interactions with the Pacific hake trawl fishery off central California in the 1980s
indicated the likelihood of competitive and disturbance effects of large-scale hake fishing. Ainley et al.1
(1982), Bailey and Ainley (1982)2 and Livingston and Bailey (1985)3 variously estimated that annual
coast-wide pinniped consumption of Pacific hake was 200,000-300,000 metric tons per year, which was comparable to
the size of the commercial fishery. The competitive effects of the fishery are not accounted for when managers set
the annual catch limits.
Bycatch in the hake trawl fishery is another concern, since numerous other species are caught incidentally along
with the hake. In July, 2007 the hake fishery was closed after it exceeded the widow rockfish bycatch limit by 21
tons. The hake fishery is required to close when it catches the maximum bycatch limit of widow rockfish and other
depleted rockfish species which are caught incidentally in the trawl nets. Enforcement officers found that a hake
trawler had disabled its monitoring camera and dumped an unreported load of widow rockfish overboard. A processing
plant was discovered preparing to destroy another unreported rockfish haul. The enforcement team seized camera hard
drives from 32 whiting boats, and reported that 40% of the cameras analyzed so far had been off during fish hauls.
No one knows how many tons of rare rockfish species were caught by these unmonitored trawlers.
