Because rockfish such as Pacific ocean perch grow slowly and do not reproduce until relatively late in life, some are caught before they can reproduce, and they're not able to replenish their populations as quickly as other species. These factors make them especially susceptible to overfishing, as reflected in the relatively low recommended harvest rate.
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LAUNCH THE MAPPacific Ocean Perch
Sebastes alutus
ALSO KNOWN AS:
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POP, Rockfish
SOURCE:
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U.S. wild-caught from Alaska to California
STATUS
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POPULATION
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FISHING RATE
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HABITAT IMPACTS
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BYCATCH
Click the icons to learn more about each criteria
OVERVIEW
Pacific ocean perch are commonly known as POP. POP are light red, with some small dark, olive-green areas.
LAUNCH GALLERYPacific ocean perch is one of about 70 kinds of rockfish (Sebastes spp.) found from the Bering Sea to Baja California. It is one of the most important commercial species in the northeast Pacific and makes up the majority of the rockfish catch in Alaska.
Pacific ocean perch was heavily fished by foreign fleets off the West Coast and in Alaska waters. Off the West Coast, catches peaked at 20,000 metric tons in the mid-1960s. Catches were even higher in Alaska, peaking at 47,000 metric tons in the eastern Bering Sea in 1961, 109,000 metric tons in the Aleutian Islands in 1965, and over 350,000 metric tons in the Gulf of Alaska in 1965. Unfortunately, this species was not productive enough to support such large catches – Pacific ocean perch stocks were depleted by the 1970s and catches fell to their lowest levels. With the passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 1976, the United States phased out foreign fishing and began to strictly manage the domestic fisheries for Pacific ocean perch to rebuild the resource. The Alaska stocks have been successfully rebuilt; the fisheries now operate sustainably and are productive once again. The West Coast stock is rebuilding because managers have prohibited directed fishing on the species, and harvest rates are now sustainable.
Looking Ahead
This Just In
8.11.12
OPINION: Managing the Pacific fishery: Catch share system recasts commercial fishing 
7.19.12
West Coast Catch Share Program Sees Conservation & Economic Benefits in First Year
7.2.12
Under catch shares, discards plummet
6.11.12
Fish managers vote to cut halibut bycatch in groundfish fisheries
6.4.12
NOAA scientists kick off surveys to collect data vital to success of Alaska's fisheries
LOCATION & HABITAT
Off the coast of North America, Pacific ocean perch are found from Southern California to the western Aleutian Islands. Encounters south of Oregon are less common, and are particularly rare in Southern California. They’re also found on the other side of the North Pacific, from Honshu, Japan, to the Bering Sea. Pacific ocean perch is most common in northern British Columbia, the Gulf of Alaska, and the Aleutian Islands.
Pacific ocean perch is a “slope rockfish” and primarily lives in deeper waters of the upper continental slope and along the edge of the continental shelf. Larvae and young juveniles live near the surface; older juveniles and adults typically live and feed near the bottom. Adults prefer both sandy and rocky bottom habitats, areas with vertical relief, and bottom habitats with structure-forming invertebrates such as corals.
Adults migrate to shallower waters in the summer to feed, and in the fall they migrate farther offshore to spawn and live for the winter. Adults form large schools, some reaching 100 feet wide, 260 feet deep, and 4,000 feet long.
BIOLOGY
Pacific ocean perch grow slowly and live a long time – scientists estimate the maximum age in Alaskan waters to be 98 years. They are not able to reproduce until they are relatively old, around age 10. Females are fairly fertile and can have between 10,000 and 300,000 eggs, depending on their size. Pacific ocean perch mate in the fall – males deposit sperm in the females, females retain the sperm, and the eggs are fertilized about 2 months later. The eggs develop inside females and receive some nourishment from the mother. They hatch internally, and females release the larvae in the spring. Pacific ocean perch can grow to about 20 inches and 4.4 pounds.
Pacific ocean perch are carnivorous. Larvae eat small zooplankton (tiny floating organisms). Juveniles and adults feed on copepods and euphausiids (krill). Adults also eat small fishes. Pacific ocean perch often move off-bottom during the day to feed, apparently following the daily migrations of krill. Seabirds, other rockfish, salmon, lingcod, and other large, bottom-dwelling fish feed on juveniles. Sablefish, Pacific halibut, and sperm whales feed on adults.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Pacific ocean perch are light red. They have dark, olive-green areas on their back under the soft dorsal fin and on the caudal peduncle (the narrow part of the body to which the tail is attached).
OVERVIEW
Scientists from the NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center survey the abundance of Pacific ocean perch every 2 years in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and in the Gulf of Alaska. They compile the data from these surveys into stock assessments, which fishery managers use to develop or amend fishery regulations. Scientists at the NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center monitor the abundance of Pacific ocean perch along the U.S. West Coast through annual trawl surveys. The coastal states and treaty tribes provide valuable biological data from port-side monitoring programs that assist in stock assessments and inform management decisions.
POPULATION STATUS
Rebuilt in 1997, the Gulf of Alaska stock reached over 330,000 tons in 2010, 36 percent above its target level. The Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands stock is also extremely abundant, at 63 percent above its target level. Off the West Coast, the Pacific ocean perch stock is rebuilding and is now at 69 percent of its target population level.
Harvesting Pacific Ocean Perch
Pacific ocean perch are caught primarily in bottom trawl fisheries in Alaska waters. Fishermen also use pelagic trawls, which now account for about a third of the catch in the Gulf of Alaska. The fishery typically opens in July, and the majority of the annual catch is taken in the summer.
Off the U.S. West Coast, Pacific ocean perch is harvested as bycatch in the bottom trawl and mid-water trawl whiting fisheries and, to a lesser extent, in longline fisheries.
Management
Who’s in charge? NOAA Fisheries and the North Pacific and Pacific Fishery Management Councils
Current management:
Alaska: Gulf of Alaska and Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Groundfish Fishery Management Plans
- Permits and limited entry to the fishery.
- Catch quotas and allocations.
- Fishing seasons.
- Closed waters and regulatory areas.
- Gear restrictions and limits on bycatch.
- Record keeping and reporting requirements and observer monitoring.
- The Central Gulf of Alaska Rockfish Program, which allows harvesters to fish together in cooperatives. These cooperatives are allocated specific amounts of the allowed catches of rockfish and species harvested incidentally to rockfish. Processors can form associations with these cooperatives. The goal of the program is to spread out the fishery in time and space, allowing for better prices and reducing the pressure of what was once an approximately 2-week fishery in July.
West Coast: Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan
- NOAA Fisheries declared West Coast Pacific ocean perch overfished in 1999. The Council adopted a rebuilding plan for the stock in 2003, prohibiting a directed fishery for the species as it rebuilds. Pacific ocean perch are still caught incidentally in both trawl and non-trawl fisheries off Washington, Oregon, and Northern California; managers control this catch through area closures and catch limits.
- Since January 2011, the West Coast groundfish trawl fishery has been managed under a trawl rationalization catch share program. Managers establish annual catch limits based on the health of each fish stock and then allocate a share of this catch limit to individual fishermen or groups of fishermen. Fishermen can decide how and when to catch their share – preferably when weather, markets, and business conditions are most favorable, allowing the fishery the flexibility to be more environmentally responsible, safer, more efficient, and more valuable. The goal is to allow fishermen to catch more of the healthy target stocks without increasing their harvest of overfished stocks.
Annual Harvest
In the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, annual catches have averaged over 14,000 metric tons during the past 5 years. In the Gulf of Alaska, catches have averaged just over 12,000 metric tons since 2000.
Although West Coast fishermen are not allowed to directly fish for Pacific ocean perch as it is rebuilding, they sometimes harvest the species incidentally in both trawl and non-trawl fisheries off Washington, Oregon, and Northern California. Annual catches have been between 50 and 200 metric tons during the past decade.
Economy
In 2010, the total harvest of Pacific ocean perch, taken mainly in Alaska waters, was valued at over $11 million.
Off the West Coast, rebuilding the Pacific ocean perch stock through proper management measures is essential to allow fisheries to access healthier stocks. If overfishing was occurring, fisheries that depend on even negligible amounts of Pacific ocean perch bycatch would be jeopardized.
OVERVIEW
Harvested commercially by the United States, Canada, and Russia, Pacific ocean perch is a delicate, nutty-flavored fish. The meat is lean and fairly firm and has a fine flake.
Pacific ocean perch are sold fresh or frozen, in variety of product forms – mainly whole, headed and gutted, or fillets. When whole, their skin should be shiny and bright. Fillets should not appear brown, gray, or yellow. (Seafood Business, 2011)
SEASONAL AVAILABILITY
Year-round
NUTRITION
Pacific ocean perch is low in saturated fat and very high in selenium, phosphorus, and vitamin B12.
| Servings | 1 |
| Serving Weight | 100 g (raw) |
| Calories | 94 |
| Protein | 18.62 g |
| Fat, total | 1.63 g |
| Saturated fatty acids, total | 0.244 g |
| Carbohydrate | 0 g |
| Sugars, total | 0 g |
| Fiber, total dietary | 0 g |
| Cholesterol | 42 mg |
| Selenium | 43.3 mcg |
| Sodium | 75 mg |
Pacific ocean perch table of nutrition
RECIPES
- Coming Soon...
Related Links
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Pacific Fishery Management Council's Background on Groundfish
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Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands Groundfish Fishery Management Plan
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NOAA Alaska Fisheries Science Center Pacific Ocean Perch Research
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Stock Assessment of Pacific Ocean Perch in Waters off of the U.S. West Coast in 2011 (PDF)
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2010 Gulf of Alaska Pacific ocean perch stock assessment (PDF)
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2010 Bering Sea/Aleutian Islands Pacific ocean perch stock assessment (PDF)
