Five meetings focus on groundfish management

NEWPORT – Meetings in five Oregon ports will discuss sport and commercial groundfish issues for 2011 and 2012.

The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) is currently setting harvest levels and management measures for the next two years of recreational and commercial groundfish fishing. Eight West Coast groundfish species are declared overfished with six of those species affecting fisheries off Oregon.

In April the PFMC adopted preferred harvest levels for both depleted and healthy stocks, as well as a range of management measures for all groundfish fisheries. At the next PFMC meeting on June 12-17 in Foster City, Calif., the council will take final action and adopt management measures that will be recommended to the National Marine Fisheries Service for implementation.

“It is important that fishers attend the ODFW meetings so they can tell Oregon’s representatives to the PFMC what messages to give the council,” said Gway Kirchner, Assistant Program Manager for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Marine Resources Program.

The meetings will be:

• Astoria, 7 to 9 p.m. May 17 at the Holiday Inn Express, 204 W. Marine Drive;
• Newport, 7 to 9 p.m. May 18 at the Holiday Inn Express, 135 SE 32nd St.;
• North Bend, 6 to 8 p.m. May 19 at the North Bend Library, 1800 Sherman Ave.;
• Brookings, 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. May 20 at the Best Western Beachfront Inn, 16008 Boat Basin Road, Harbor;
• Port Orford, 6 to 8 p.m. May 20 at the Port Orford Library, 1421 Oregon St.

The meetings will start with a general session to discuss harvest levels, then commercial and sport fishing breakout sessions to discuss specific management measures. If individuals are unable to attend the meetings, input can be submitted by e-mail at gway.r.kirchner@state.or.us or by calling Gway Kirchner at 541-867-0300 ext. 267. Input may be received up until June 10.

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