May 11, 2026 — For years, rebuilding of West Coast groundfish stocks has been held up as one of the great success stories in American fisheries management. NOAA once called it the “comeback of the century,” celebrating the rebound of stocks that had been declared overfished in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But according to an analysis from University of Washington researchers, there’s another side to that story, one that the industry has long felt firsthand.
“Stocks were rebuilt, but at a great cost to the industry and U.S. food production,” Ray Hilborn, professor at the University of Washington, wrote in an email to National Fisherman.
Hilborn pointed to research he co-authored examining whether West Coast groundfish stocks could have rebuilt under less restrictive management measures, and whether fishermen, processors, and coastal communities paid a steeper economic price than necessary during the recovery process.
“What NOAA doesn’t advertise is that if no rebuilding plans had been implemented, $886 million in additional revenue would have been made by the fishing fleets, and the stocks would have rebuilt, but more slowly,” Hilborn wrote.