Rockfish have largely recovered on the West Coast, but many populations in the inland waters of the Salish Sea remain endangered.
A new SeaDoc Society-funded study will use genetics and life-history information to determine which Salish Sea rockfish species are connected to populations on the outer coast and which are isolated to our island waters. Knowing this information will help improve rockfish conservation and recovery plans.
“Understanding the connectivity between coastal and Puget Sound populations is important for management,” said Lorenz Hauser of University of Washington’s School of Aquatic Fishery Sciences, who is leading the study in collaboration with scientists from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center.
Photo by Janna Nichols
There are more than 60 species of rockfish along the West Coast and they are a fascinating group to say the least! Some rockfish species can live more than 100 years. They also give birth to live babies rather than laying eggs like most fish species.
Rockfish don’t reproduce at the same abundance every year. In some years their offspring don’t survive, while in other years an abundance of babies are born. Our young of the year rockfish surveys with NOAA Fisheries and Paua Marine Research are aimed, in part, at documenting when and to what degree those jackpot years occur.
These unique characteristics make rockfish vulnerable to exploitation and disturbance. Populations in the Puget Sound and Salish Sea were for a long time overfished, but they haven't really recovered despite restrictions on fisheries over the years.
Data suggests a nearly 4% annual decline of total rockfish abundance since the 1970s.
The discrepancy in stock status and trajectories between the Salish Sea and the outer coast poses considerable problems for management.
“It leaves uncertainty as to how much Puget Sound populations benefit from immigration from larger coastal populations,” said Hauser, whose team will collect genetic data across the genome in several rockfish species to help bridge that knowledge gap.
Genetic differentiation and isolation from coastal stocks will be crucial in determining how to conserve these species. We look forward to sharing the Hauser and his team’s findings!
Main photo by David Hicks