Bottomfish

More people recreationally fish for bottomfish than any other type of saltwater fish in Oregon. Bottomfish is a general term for fish found mostly around rocky areas, and includes rockfish, lingcod, greenling and cabezon. They are usually the target of an angler's first saltwater fishing experience, and often it's not just the fish that get hooked. 

There are more than 90 species of bottomfish. Black rockfish are the backbone of the Oregon sport bottomfish fishery, making up about 70 percent of Oregon's sport bottomfish landings. Bottomfish fishing is important to Oregon's charter fleet as it provides stable, year-round opportunity for charter boat customers. Anglers fishing from charter boats account for about 61 percent of the sport bottomfish catch in a year.

Bottomfish are not only managed at the state level by ODFW but also at the federal level as part of the federal bottomfish fishery management plan. MRP must take each species' federal restrictions on harvest into consideration when planning Oregon's seasons and harvest limits. The need to manage sport fishery impacts on groundfish arises from one or more factors, such as:

• Decreasing fish populations
• Escalating harvest
• Uncertainty about the sustainability of a fishery
• The need to share a quota among user groups

To address these impacts, various management tools are used in Oregon: daily bag limits, size limits, conservation area closures, and annual quotas. One tool that MRP uses to help reduce the impacts on bottomfish, is the required use of a descending device.

Pacific halibut

When a big Pacific halibut takes the bait, it's like hooking the bumper of a tank. They're tough to crank off the bottom, but there are few thrills like landing a big halibut. Pacific halibut is one of Oregon's most active saltwater sport fisheries. Anglers make more than 16,000 halibut trips and catch about 10,400 fish in a year.  

Most Pacific halibut caught in Oregon are between 20 and 30 pounds (round weight), but big ones (usually females) weighing more than 100 pounds are possible.

Oregon is part of the Pacific halibut's southern range, which extends into northern California. Halibut can migrate long distances and tend to be smaller in the south. In the Aleutian Islands, the northern part of their range, halibut can grow to seven feet and weigh 650 pounds.

Many agencies and steps are involved in setting the season and quotas for Oregon's Pacific halibut sport fishery each year.

Seasons typically run from May through October, closing sooner if harvest quotas are met. The sport Pacific halibut catch is carefully monitored by Oregon’s fishery managers throughout the season to make sure the harvest does not exceed the sustainable harvest quota.

Ocean salmon

When salmon fishing is good, it is the biggest fishing draw on the Oregon coast. The primary species in the ocean catch are Chinook and coho, with a few pink salmon in odd numbered years, and an occasional chum salmon or steelhead. The sport ocean fishery is almost exclusively done by trolling lures and bait.

Coho is the primary salmon caught from the Coos Bay area north to waters off the Columbia River. Seasons usually run between late-June and September. Since 2011, the coho seasons have taken a two-tiered approach:

• Selective season (hatchery fin-clipped only) early in the summer
• Non-selective season (both hatchery and wild) in September

Coho quotas are much reduced from historical seasons (pre 1994) due both to limitations to harvest on critical coho populations and a shift in management strategy from a specific spawning escapement goal to an impact-rate limitation that uses parental spawners and an estimate of marine survival as the driving factors. The spawner escapement approach relied heavily on abundance forecasts and often resulted in unsustainable impacts. The impact-rate approach in current use provides a safer strategy to rebuild natural coho populations along the Oregon coast. This change has already shown benefits to the fishery with more fishing opportunity and strong returns of wild coho in many years.

Ocean Chinook salmon fishing tends to be more of a challenge for anglers along much of the coast with fish much deeper and harder to find. Anglers usually have the best success from Winchester Bay to Brookings and off the Columbia River. A large proportion of the Chinook caught off Oregon from Tillamook to Brookings are fall Chinook out of California's Central Valley.

The Oregon ocean salmon regulation development process begins in February and is finalized in May. The process involves federal and state agencies, along with public input.

Tuna

Each year, the number of anglers pursuing albacore tuna off the Oregon coast grows. On average, the sport albacore season lands 28,600 albacore and has 7,700 angler trips in a year. The most landed albacore tuna ever recorded in Oregon was 98,000 in 2019.

Albacore tuna start to migrate into the waters off Oregon usually near the end of June, with the best fishing typically in July and August. The fish usually stay in range of the sport fleet through early October.

Most years, tuna anglers must travel 30 miles or more offshore to find albacore. The fish are most commonly found in waters with surface temperatures of approximately 60 degrees.

The young tuna caught off Oregon are just starting their cross-Pacific journey and are three to five years old. Most albacore caught by Oregon anglers are between 20 to 30 pounds. They are also higher in desirable omega-3 fish oils than the larger, leaner, older albacore caught in the central Pacific. And because of their young age, these fish have a reduced mercury buildup in their meat compared to those caught in many other areas, according to the Oregon Albacore Commission (Oregon Department of Agriculture).

Crab

Crabbing in Oregon is a year-round activity that usually yields success. It can be done from a dock or pier, and even directly from the shore. Crabbing in deeper water from a boat, however, is usually much more productive. Some private businesses along the coast rent crabbing gear and boats so anyone can go crabbing without buying their own equipment.

The Dungeness crab fishery is managed by size, sex and season. Only male crabs at least 5 ¾ inches can be harvested – females must be immediately released so they can be left to reproduce. The minimum size for male crabs allows them to have at least one year of reproduction, sometimes two.

From the middle of October through the end of November, harvesting crabs in the ocean is closed. This is done for a variety of reasons, one of which is to allow the crab time to fill out with meat.

In addition to the highly sought-after Dungeness crab, red rock crab are plentiful in most bays and, while smaller, are just as tasty. A common misunderstanding, caused perhaps by the liberal bag limit, is that red rock crab are not native to Oregon. Red rock crab are, in fact, a native species found in the fossil record as well as in Native American middens. They are an important component of Oregon estuaries and nearshore areas, and even function as a steward to the estuary by preying on invasive species such as green crab.

MRP conducts a sampling project in Yaquina and Alsea bays. This project is part of a larger, multi-year bay crab monitoring project. Temporal and spatial distributions of species compositions, quantities of crabs, size distributions, size to weight relationships, sex ratios, shell conditions, microsporidian infection rates and environmental factors affecting bay crabs are all explored in this study.

Bay Clams

Gaper, butter, cockle, littleneck and softshell clams are the most commonly harvested species in Oregon estuaries due to their abundance, size and taste. A wide variety of other species can be found but are not commonly harvested.

Two non-native species are also commonly harvested in many of Oregon's bays: softshell and purple varnish clams.  Softshell clams are native to the East Coast, where they are an important commercial fishery. They have been part of Oregon's bay clams since the late 1800s. The purple varnish clam, a relative newcomer to Oregon, originated from Asia and was introduced into British Columbia and Puget Sound in the early 1990s via ships' ballast water. They have been hopscotching their way south ever since.

Through the MRP Shellfish and Estuarine Assessment of Coastal Oregon project, information is gathered on bay clam populations and estuarine habitat. Each of the four major clamming bays, Coos, Tillamook, Yaquina and Netarts bays, are sampled once every ten years. Smaller estuaries are sampled less frequently as time allows. The information that is collected helps assist in making management decisions to conserve clam populations and estuaries.

Razor clams

Razor clams are highly sought after, prized for their taste. The majority of razor clam harvest occurs on Clatsop beaches, an 18-mile stretch of shoreline from the south jetty of the Columbia River south to Tillamook Head.

Each year, ODFW closes razor clam harvest from July 15 through Sept. 30 on Clatsop beaches. The conservation closure gives young clams time to settle and grow. During the closure, ODFW biologists assess the population.

At times, razor clams become contaminated with biological toxins produced by naturally occurring algal blooms. The two main biotoxins are domoic acid and paralytic shellfish poisoning. If levels become high enough, these toxins pose a human health risk and close razor clam harvesting. Reopening an area to razor clam harvesting requires biotoxins to be under the human safety threshold for two consecutive tests.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture tests for biotoxins at least twice a month as tides and weather permits. ODFW takes water samples to monitor for harmful algae blooms. The data collected is an early warning system for potential toxins that could impact shellfish harvest.