of Fish and Wildlife. Data from Oregon and Washington cover the periods 1991–1993 and 1998–1999; those from California cover 1994–1996. The major bottom trawled grounds in Washington were off Cape Flattery and to the southwest and from Westport to the Columbia River. The grounds off southern Washington were fished relatively heavily by vessels from Washington and Oregon ports. Off Oregon, the trawl fisheries are concentrated off major fishing ports such as Astoria, Newport, and Coos Bay. Important trawl grounds off California are, for the most part, found from Monterey north to the Oregon border, with relatively intense fishing between Santa Cruz and San Francisco and between Cape Mendocino and Crescent City. Two relatively heavily fished sites are also reported off Grover City and Ventura in southern California. State regulations prohibit trawling in state waters (3 nautical meters from shore) and on the continental shelf south of El Segundo to the Mexican Border; however, some trawling occurs on offshore banks in Southern California.

The intensity of trawling off the contiguous west coast states appears relatively similar for the three states, with slightly higher effort occurring off Oregon. (Note that the years for which data have been summarized for Washington, Oregon, and California differ.) The average number of tows per year off California from 1994 to 1996 was 15,535. It is estimated that there was a 60 percent reduction in effort between the early and late 1990s, because of declines in the abundance of target species and the subsequent Pacific Fishery Management Council reductions in quotas and fishing time. It is estimated that, during the mid 1990s, an average of 15 percent of the California shelf and slope area fished was swept more than once a year; 85 percent was swept less than once a year. Off the coasts of Oregon and Washington, during the late 1990s, 6 percent of the continental shelf and slope area fished was swept more than once a year; 94 percent was swept less than once a year (Figures B.35 and B.36).

A significant trawl effort also occurs off the three Pacific coast states for pink shrimp. The most intense fishing effort occurs off Oregon in the vicinity of Coos Bay, between Seaside and Garaibaldi, and off Pacific City. On average, about 10,000 shrimp tows per year were reported for areas off Oregon and Washington between 1997 and 1999.

The continental shelf and slope region off the coast of Alaskan coast constitutes one of the most extensive fishing grounds in the world. Bottom trawling in the Bering Sea began in 1929 with a Japanese exploratory operation; commercial operations began during the 1930s and early 1940s. Although these activities were terminated during World War II, they began again in the early 1950s (Alverson et al., 1964).

In the late 1950s, a large Soviet fleet entered the Bering Sea. Between 1960 and 1970, distant water bottom trawl fishing operations, conducted by several nations, intensely fished the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. By the 1970s, foreign operations dominated bottom fishing on the continental shelf and slope in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska. Domestic bottom trawling began with joint ventures in the Bering Sea in 1978 after passage of the Magnuson-Stevens Act in 1976. U.S. trawl activities in the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska grew rapidly during the 1980s, and, by the end of the decade, they had displaced foreign fisheries.

The most important trawl fisheries in Alaska in terms of total ex-vessel value, landings, and employment are for groundfish, which constituted 51 percent of the ex-vessel value for Alaskan fisheries in 2000. Bottom trawling provided 21 percent of the ex-vessel value—the major species are Pacific cod and flatfish (Hiatt et al., 2001). Pollock is the major groundfish species caught by trawl gear as measured by weight (71 percent in 2000) and value (65 percent in 2000), but in 1990 most of the catch (88 percent) was allocated to pelagic gear and by 1996 only 2 percent of the catch was caught by bottom trawl. In 1999, the use of bottom trawl gear was prohibited in the pollock fishery. Therefore, the pollock fishery is not included in this analysis.

In 1998, fishing cooperatives were introduced that use contractual agreements to manage catch and bycatch allocations between fishery sectors. The groundfish fleet is divided into catcher vessels and