March 18, 2026 — The West Coast’s most important fisheries manager has voted to remove 47 stocks of groundfish from active federal management. Amid massive cuts to federal budgets for science and regulatory activities, members of the Pacific Fishery Management Council were told their 50-year-old system is unsustainable.
The National Marine Fisheries Service instructed the nation’s regional fishery councils to use a specific process — a matrix examining risk versus value — to evaluate the more than 500 stocks they manage and to narrow the scope of their responsibilities. That work started with Pacific groundfish.
Merrick Burden is the executive director of the Pacific council, which oversees West Coast and Idaho fisheries. He said cuts from the Trump administration have slashed the staff of the federal regulators and scientists they work with.
“In our region, the estimates are around 40% of their staff, which is staggering,” he said. “So this has led to a national conversation of: how many species can we really manage? And we need to prioritize more.”