No Harvest/Retention on Ocean Pout?
According to Teri Frady Communications Director at NOAA ocean pout have been deemed overfished and wreck anglers are no longer allowed to keep them for table fare. When asked, the response from Frady was simple, “Unfortunately, the stock assessment says quite the opposite (we had touted their abundance in the original question), hence the regulation. Ocean pout are not hugely abundant; they are at a fraction of their rebuilt size (overfished) and declining steadily. This index assessment reveals that catch, survey indices and exploitation ratios remain at, or near, record low levels and the annual estimates of discards exceed the landings. Although exploitation has been low, stock size has not increased suggesting that this stock may be in a dispensatory state. Discards are estimated to be an important component of catch and may be sufficiently high to hinder recovery of the stock.”
They are widely caught by trawlers and discarded overboard and despite the fact that they can live out of water for long periods of time are now off limits to recreational anglers.