Oregon Public Broadcasting

Oregon fishermen are voluntarily staying away from Pacific whiting, at least for now.  They started fishing for whiting last month, but found too many rockfish in their nets. 

Certain rockfish are considered overfished, and fishermen have to be careful about quotas.  The whiting and the rockfish are still swimming together in the ocean, but they normally separate by now. 

Brad Pettinger is the administrator for the Oregon Trawl Commission.  He says the situation – like so many others this year – is weather-related.

Fishermen plan to re-start trawling for Pacific whiting on July 20th.