Trawlers return to Pacific fishing area in rare environmental success story
With stocks rebounding, regulators have reopened a groundfish habitat off the west coast – with environmentalists’ support
A rare environmental success story is unfolding in waters off the US west coast.
After years of fear and uncertainty, bottom trawler fishermen – those who use nets to catch rockfish, bocaccio, sole, Pacific Ocean perch and other deep-dwelling fish – are making a comeback here, reinventing themselves as a sustainable industry less than two decades after authorities closed huge stretches of the Pacific Ocean because of the species’ depletion.