North Pacific hake
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| Merluccius productus (Ayres, 1855) |
The North Pacific hake, Pacific hake, or Pacific whiting, Merluccius productus, is a merluccid hake of the genus Merluccius, found in the north east Pacific Ocean from northern Vancouver Island to the northern part of the Gulf of California, from the surface to depths of 1,000 metres. Its length is about 3 ft (90 cm). It spawns from January to June, and its diet includes shrimp, plankton and smaller fishes. Coloration is metallic silver-gray with black speckling and pure silver on the belly.
[edit] Fisheries
The North Pacific hake commercial fishery is the largest off the West Coast of the United States and British Columbia. North Pacific hake is primarily made into surimi, a minced fish product used to make imitation crab and other products. More recently, there has been growth in the production of hake fillets.
The fishery developed in the 1960s with the arrival of distant water fleets from the former Soviet Union and eastern European nations. In the 1980s the fishery in the U.S. exclusive economic zone (i.e., 200 miles seaward of state waters) evolved into a joint venture operation between foreign at-sea processing vessels and U.S. catcher vessels. By the 1990s, the fishery had developed into a domestic fishery with three distinct sectors:
- Catcher/Processors that harvest and process at sea (see Pacific Whiting Conservation Cooperative)
- Motherships that take deliveries from catcher vessels and process at-sea
- Shoreside processors that take deliveries from catcher vessels.
U.S. coastal treaty tribes in Washington comprise a fourth sector of the North Pacific hake fishery. Through an agreement with the U.S. government, coastal treaty Tribes receive a specific annual catch allocation of North Pacific hake. Their allocation is based on the level of allowable harvest, which varies year-to-year. For example, in 2005 the U.S. total allowable catch is 269,069 metric tonnes; of this amount the Makah Tribe was allocated 35,000 mt. The Quileute Tribe is also eligible for an allocation, but have not been active in the fishery in recent years.
Since 2000, annual catch in the non-tribal hake fishery has averaged about 160,000 mt per year.
In November 2003, the U.S. and Canada signed the "Agreement Between the Government of Canada and the Government of the United States of America on Pacific Hake/Whiting" to establish new ways to strengthen cooperation between Canada and the U.S. by creating a process under which the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) is decided and the fishery is managed. Under this agreement, 26.12% of the TAC is annually allocated to Canada, and 73.88% of the TAC is annually allocated to the United States. The agreement is pending ratification by the U.S. Senate. However, both the U.S. and Canada are managing their respective fisheries based on the agreement’s cooperative management process.
[edit] References
- "Merluccius productus". FishBase. Ed. Ranier Froese and Daniel Pauly. April 2006 version. N.p.: FishBase, 2006.
