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USA (West-Coast) - Exploitation

The marine and nearshore ecosystems of the CCLME have been exploited at industrial levels for well over two centuries, and they supported Native American communities for millennia before that. Early Europeans harvested whales, fur seals, elephant seals, sea lions, otters, seabirds and salmon. The California sardine fishery peaked in the mid 20th century, and after its crash subsequent fisheries developed for anchovy, mackerel, herring and squid. Throughout the past two centuries, some fisheries grew unsustainably fast, rapidly depleting resources in short pulses, including fisheries targeting abalone, black and white seabass, and various elasmobranchs such as basking, soupfin and dogfish sharks. Fisheries for many groundfish, including Pacific (and California) halibut, sablefish, lingcod, Pacific ocean perch and other rockfish seemed to be sustainable at low levels prior to the development of modern industrial fisheries during the 1950s, after which high fishing effort depleted many stocks below sustainable levels.

The development of modern industrial fisheries during the 1950s through the 1980s led to increased harvest of many groundfish, including Pacific halibut, California halibut, sablefish, lingcod, Pacific ocean perch and other rockfish (Sebastes spp.).  Many stocks, especially rockfish, were identified as overfished, and management measures reduced fishing pressure through the late 1990s and 2000s. Today only four rockfish stocks are currently considered overfished (i.e. they have not recovered) and are subject to multi-decade rebuilding plans: yelloweye rockfish, cowcod, canary rockfish, and Pacific Ocean perch.