Exhibit E Recreational Abalone Fishery Management March 16 th , - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Exhibit E Recreational Abalone Fishery Management

March 16th, 2018

Scott Groth, Pink Shrimp/ South Coast Shellfish Project Leader Steve Rumrill, Shellfish Program Leader

1

Why are we here?

Red abalone in a crevice

Issue at hand: Consider management options for the recreational abalone fishery Current status:

• Temporarily suspended (01/ 01/ 2018)
• Developed a field report (01/ 19/ 2018)
• Engaged with permit holders
• Analyzed California/ Oregon fishery

history and status

• Developed management options

Red abalone amongst red sea urchins

Structure of presentation

3

• Biology of abalone and how it affects

fisheries

• Abalone fisheries history and issues
• Condition of Oregon’s red abalone stock
• Current problems

– Low densities – Poor environmental conditions – Increased pressure

• Permit holder questionnaire
• Management options

Abalone biology

4

• Marine snails
• Live on rocky reefs

– Sedentary

• Eat drift kelp

– Only live in shallow kelp beds

• Broadcast spawners

– Tight aggregations critical – Short larval period (local)

• Long lived

~ 15 years to minimum size Maximum age 35-54 years

Two red abalone

Abalone fisheries

5

• Principally occur in areas with cold water and rocky

reefs (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Japan, West Coast US)

• US West Coast has had many fisheries, all closed

due to population concerns (5 of 7 species with ESA status)

• California had most robust fisheries and strongest

effects.

Source: CDFG, 2003

Oregon abalone fisheries

6

Two species

• Flat abalone: Commercial fishery (2001-2008)
• Red abalone: Commercial fishery (1960-1962)

Recreational fishery (1953-present)

Commercially caught flat abalone 2001-2008 Recreational red abalone harvest- 1960’s Photo: Eugene Heflin

Depoe Bay Charleston Port Orford Gold Beach Brookings

Oregon’s red abalone

7

• 1953 - red abalone “discovered”
• 1959 - rules to recreational fishery

established (3/ week)

• 1960-1962 commercial fishery
• 1965-1975 and 1994-2002 spawning

programs designed to bolster fishery

• 1996 1/ day, 5/ year

– Added free harvest permit

Oregon’s abalone fishery

8

• Location

– South Coast – Shallow kelp beds

• Methods

50% SCUBA 28% Free dive 22% Shore pick

• Permits

~ 300/ year

• Harvest

~ 189/ year (2007-2016)

Depoe Bay Charleston Port Orford Gold Beach Brookings

SCUBA, 50% Free dive, 28% Shore pick, 22%

California

~ 25,000/ year ~ 239,000/ year (2002-2015) No SCUBA allowed

So what’s the allure?

9

• Trophy shells!
• Red abalone are the worlds

largest species of abalone

• Like many animals, red

abalone grow to their largest sizes at polar range extents

• Oregon red abalones are the

largest abalones in the world

• Trophy hunting abalone is

exciting and competitive

Underpinning problems of abalone fisheries

10

• 1. Density dependent spawning success
• Issue: Abalones only spawn when aggregated
• Effect: Fishing targets aggregations
• 2. Fishery data is misleading
• Issue: Reduced abundance may not affect fishing

success

• Effect: Population crashes due to fishery managers not

detecting changes using fishery data

• 3. Enforcement
• Easy to illegally harvest and valuable
• Difficult to monitor

Current problems

11

• 1. Low densities
• 2. Poor environmental conditions
• 3. Increasing pressure/ harvest
• No FMP or conservation framework in place

• Prior to 2015, no quantitative surveys attempted
• 2015- Belt transect surveys (CA methods)

0.44 0.15 0.03 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 California (2012-2016) California (2017) Oregon (2015) Red abalone density/m²

1) Low density of red abalone

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0.3 abalone/m² CA fishery closure trigger (ARMP) 0.2- 0.15 abalone/m² Vulnerable to collapse (Shepard and Partington, 1995)

A way to think Oregon red abalone stock/fishery as relates to others

Principal stock, fishing, and science

Oregon

Crescent city, CA

Mendocino to Channel Islands, CA

2) Poor environmental conditions

• Kelp beds vastly reduced

after El Niño

• Other factors:

– purple sea urchins – sea star wasting syndrome

Orford Reef 2014, lots of kelp Orford Reef 2016, little kelp

3) Increasing fishery pressure/ harvest

• Permits increasing
• Harvest increasing

Recent HUGE spike in interest

50 100 150 200 250 300 350 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

# of permits

Rock scallops added Shellfish license

Permits

50 100 150 200 250 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016

# abalone

Harvest

Questionnaire methods

• Sent a mailer to all 2016 and 2017 permit holders

(n= 418)

– Description of suspension/ current problems – Questionnaire to understand what works for harvesters

• Preferred management approach (closure, alternate

fishery rules, status quo)

• If “alternate fishery rules”, what would work?
• Received feedback on ~ 50% mailers received by

permit holders

• Passionate responses!

Questionnaire results

• Overall preference

– Most prefer to continue fishery with alternate rules

• Alternate fishery rule preference

– Most prefer to reduced annual take

Alternate Fishery Rules 65% Closure/ Suspension 27% Defer to ODFW 4% Status quo 4%

Summary

• Abalone biology makes them sensitive to fishing

pressure

• Abalone fisheries have been unsuccessful
• Low densities in 2015 surveys

– Surveys results “off the charts”

• Low kelp conditions likely starving abalones
• Increase in fishery/ harvest pressure

– Historic high, likely to increase further

• 2/ 3 permit holders prefer to continue the fishery

with new rules, 1/ 4 prefer closure

Options

• 1. Permanent fishery closure
• 2. Temporary fishery closure
• 3. Reduced Annual Limit (3)
• 4. Reduced Annual Limit (1)
• 5. Seasonal closure
• 6. Increased size limit
• 7. No SCUBA
• 8. Limited entry permits
• 9. Status quo

1-2) Permanent/ temporary closure

Pros: 1. Conservative approach on this very sensitive species 2. Reduces potential for ESA actions 3. Could allow recovery, reduces risk 4. Time to revisit Oregon red abalone stock monitoring 5. Monitoring of California stock trends/ management choices Cons: 1. Closes fishery 2. Monitoring is expensive 3. Does not assure a fishery will be advised in future

3-4) Reducing annual take

Pros: 1. Easy to implement 2. Affords opportunity 3. Possibly reduces overall take Cons: 1. Harvest is upon a sensitive, imperiled stock 2. Not likely to reduce overall take, via increased permits

5-6) Seasonal/ size limitations

Pros: 1. May reduce take in cooperation with other measures Cons: 1. Harvest is upon a sensitive, imperiled stock 2. Seasonal closures make the fishery more dangerous to fishery participants 3. Increased size limitation likely cause more sorting of abalones (bycatch injuries are lethal)

7) No SCUBA

Pros: 1. VERY popular among free divers 2. Elegant, easy to understand 3. Easy to implement Cons: 1. Harvest is upon a sensitive, imperiled stock 2. Has no conservation benefit (no depth reserve in OR) 3. Likely conservation negative (more bycatch mortalities) 4. Makes fishery more dangerous for participants 5. Did not work in CA areas with only shallow populations 6. Did not work for current CA situation

8) Limited entry

Pros: 1. Affords a high value recreation opportunity 2. Allows managers to regulate annual take Cons: 1. Harvest is upon a sensitive, imperiled stock 2. Limits would be expected to be low and permits very expensive 3. Complex and expensive to administer 4. We would have to survey regularly, costly

Staff Recommendation

Option 2: Temporary fishery closure

Allows 3 years to consider stock/ fishery

• Workshop on northern stock with California
• Track California monitoring surveys
• Revisit Oregon surveys (if budget allows)
• Develop an abalone conservation plan
• This option is most aligned with imperiled status of

red abalone, while allowing a near term- “check in” with Commission