Port Orford fishermen are working with scientists to find out whether releasing pregnant rockfish can help conserve the resource – and their way of life.
Research assistant with rockfish
Fishermen are working with the Port Orford Ocean Resource Team (POORT) and researcher Selina Heppell, of Oregon State University’s Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, on a project to determine whether releasing “big old fat fecund females” (BOFFFs) can contribute to the species’ reproduction and survival, ultimately sustaining the local fishery.
Their efforts, supported by a grant from Oregon Sea Grant, are focused on the live fishery – a market that began in California and expanded into Oregon in the mid-1990s.