Economic Status of the Pacific Hake Fishery, 2009-23

The Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC) collects economic data and generates economic performance metrics for many U.S. West Coast fisheries, including the Pacific hake (a.k.a. whiting) fishery. This fishery consists of catcher vessels that deliver to shorebased processors and at sea to motherships (floating processors), as well as catcher–processors that both catch and process Pacific hake. This information is used in many contexts, including the annual Pacific hake stock assessment, biennial harvest specifications, Regulatory Flexibility Act (RFA) reviews and regulatory impact analyses, as well as Congressional briefings. This report contains time series of each of these economic performance metrics by sector and important information about the sources of data and caveats for interpreting the information.