Southern California Hook and Line Survey

The Hook and Line Survey uses rod and reel gear to sample fish in areas that are difficult to survey using traditional research trawl nets. These areas include hard seafloor habitats like rocky reefs, boulder fields, and large undersea cliffs and pinnacles.

Our West Coast Groundfish Bottom Trawl Survey targets commercially valuable groundfish species over low relief, or flat, habitats that are easy to trawl. However, we lose vital information on population biology, recruitment, and movement if we also don't sample untrawlable habitats.

We developed the Hook and Line Survey in response to declining rockfish stocks in the Southern California Bight. We sample many groundfish species including:

Bocaccio (Sebastes paucispinis)
Cowcod (S. levis)
Greenspotted rockfish (S. chlorostictus)
Vermilion/sunset rockfish complex (S. miniatus and S. crocotulus)

The Hook and Line Survey began in 2003, sampling commercially and recreationally important shelf rockfish species over untrawlable habitats in the Southern California Bight. The Survey is a cooperative effort between NOAA Fisheries, Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission, and the Southern California sportfishing industry. We work with fishermen to identify sampling sites, species of interest, and to develop standardized methods of sampling so that data collected yearly are comparable.