January 22, 2024 — After a 20-year rockfish recovery effort, marine scientists and fishermen reached an unlikely compromise to protect fragile areas of the seafloor off Southern California’s coast while reopening others to fishing.
According to Oceana, an ocean conservation organization, the eight new Groundfish Exclusion Areas cover more than 425 square miles — in and around the Santa Barbara Channel — which are now closed to all groundfish fishing to protect the living seafloor.
Simultaneously, more than 4,800 miles of ocean waters in the region are re-opened for non-trawl groundfish fishing.
Dr. Geoff Shester, Oceana’s senior scientist, called it a “win-win.” The compromise protects brittle, potentially millennia-old colonies of deep-sea corals that are easily damaged by fishing, while also allowing fishermen to access valuable fishing spots that have been essentially untouched for decades.
“It’ll probably be some of the best fishing anyone’s seen in their lives,” Shester said.