OREGON'S OCEAN

DESCRIPTION

The chart of our study area is approximately 50 nautical miles north to south and 20 nautical miles east to west - about1000 square nautical miles. The area represents about 20% of Oregon's continental shelf waters. It is hypothetical, but resembles ocean features off the central Oregon coast. Familiar geographic names have been used to identify the features and fishing communities.

The rocky areas of the continental shelf contain a high diversity of physical habitats and conditions. Production (breeding and nursery functions) for species such as rockfish is very high compared to the sand and sand-mud areas nearby. However, the sand and mud areas have supported bottom trawling for rockfish and other species over a number of years. Over the last ten years, these traditional areas have yielded smaller and smaller catches. Commercial bottom trawlers have therefore increased their efforts in rocky areas even though the rocky bottom is more damaging to bottom trawl gear. Charter and private sport boats, fishing with hook and line, have always fished the rocky areas for lingcod and rockfish. In recent years, this effort has increased due to reductions in opportunities to catch salmon. Charter captains and sport fishers have noticed that some of the rockfish species they catch have been getting smaller, on average, over the last ten years.

There are two major ports on our map, Newport and Garibaldi. Both support major commercial fisheries, have fish processing plants, and related marine businesses. Sport fishers fish with hook and line, and either use their own boats, or pay charter boats to take them to the fishing areas. Both ports support large charter businesses. The sport fishery catches primarily rockfish and lingcod, mostly around rocky areas and close to shore. The commercial fishing industry has been hit hard with cutbacks in allowed catch for some rockfish species in recent years, and the charter industry has been equally hurt by cutbacks in salmon fishing over the last eight years. Still, the contribution of fisheries to the economy is substantial, and has grown more important as the forest products industry has been reduced.

Commercial fishing for rockfish has changed over the last decade. In prior years, areas historically fished began to produce poor catches. Fishers moved their bottom trawl gear nearer or on rocky areas, even though they risked damage to their gear. The large and heavy rollers and gear sometimes damaged the rocky habitat. To reduce this damage, a new requirement was enacted to reduce the size of the bottom trawling gear. Called a ìshort footrope,î it could no longer be used to fish over about 50% of the previously fished rocky areas. Thus, commercial bottom trawlers have been restricted by dwindling fish populations and regulations.

The area is characterized by seasonal and year-round upwelling (where cold, nutrient-rich bottom water rises to the ocean surface, providing the basis of a food web). The current direction is generally northerly, subsurface in the spring to fall and surface during the winter. Rockfish breeding and nursery areas are concentrated near upwelling areas, in areas where currents can deliver food, and near rock transition areas. Marine mammals feed throughout the area; gray whales are particularly numerous near shore late spring to late fall. Marine birds make heavy use of the area to feed, especially when tens of thousand of common murres nest on nearshore rocks during the spring and summer.

What we do know FOR SURE about the area is that we know very little. The sea is still a mystery. Much more research is needed before we understand the complex interactions of long and short term natural cycles, tides, currents and weather, and the creatures that live around, on, and in the ocean.

Various groups have proposed six areas on your map as no-take marine reserves. Other groups favor no reserve, some favor one or more of the proposals, and some favor the establishment of the entire area on your map as a marine reserve. All groups agree on the goals for action. These are:

1. to rebuild fish populations, especially rockfish.
2. protect fish breeding and nursery areas, and fish habitat in general.
3. to insure against failures in fisheries management (When we look out on our ocean, we see only the surface. Yet, fishery managers must set up fishing regulations for not only the surface, but far below. They are forced to make assumptions about the ocean with little information, and are therefore prone to error, including inaccurate estimates of the fish and wildlife that are present, the number of fish that will be produced, fishing mortality and climate variation.).