Oregon Commercial Fishing 

Oregon commercial fishing includes fisheries for pink shrimp, crabs, clams, sea urchins, tuna, salmon, sardines, Pacific whiting, and several other species of groundfish. The Oregon commercial fishing, seafood and aquaculture industries have a significant impact on the state's economy. The total volume of Oregon seafood exceeded 300 million pounds in 2005 and 2006.The total value of Oregon seafood in 2006 was nearly $106 million dollars.

Important Oregon ports include Astoria, Warrenton, Garibaldi, Pacific City, Deboe Bay, Newport, Florence, Winchester Bay, Charleston, Bandon, Port Orford, Gold Beach and Brookings.

Oregon’s pink shrimp trawl fishery is a sustainable and well-managed fishery. The Oregon pink shrimp fishery is the first shrimp fishery worldwide to be certified under the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) program. The MSC label helps consumers reward producers by choosing seafood that originates from certified sustainable fisheries.

The Oregon Dungeness crab industry is a limited entry fishery with a somewhat stable number of boats participating in the fishery. In 2006, a new three tier pot limitation program was introduced. The 2006/2007 regulations allowed for 200, 300, and 500 pot limits to help control fishing pressure.

Oregon has three types of commercial salmon fisheries.

An ocean troll chinook fishery along the Oregon coast. Commercial fishermen using this method catch fish by slowly towing lines which consist of baited rigs or artificial lures.

An open gillnet fishery exists on the lower Columbia River. About 100 fishermen participate in a special fishery for aquaculture-raised salmon in Youngs Bay. Gillnetters in this fishery may also catch hatchery runs if there is a surplus. A bycatch also exists where sturgeon gillnetters are allowed to keep 100 spring chinook caught while fishing for sturgeon.

A native American treaty gillnet fishery exists on the Columbia River. Native American tribes are entitled to catch limited numbers of fall chinook and steelhead under treaties with the U.S. government specifying that the tribes reserved the right to fish "at all usual and accustomed fishing sites in common with citizens of the United States." The fall chinook run typically makes up the largest portion of the Columbia River salmon catch.

A fishery for albacore tuna exists along the Oregon coast. The Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) has a highly migratory species (HMS) fisheries management plan (FMP) in place for albacore tuna. The FMP has established a maximum sustainable yield (MSY) for albacore tuna. As of 2007, there was no state or federal limited entry permit system for this fishery.

Pacific Whiting is another important fishery. Most Oregon whiting are landed by mid-water trawl vessels which hold a federal exempted fishing permit (EFP). Non-EFP vessels may also land whiting, but are subject to groundfish trip limits, and must discard prohibited species. The EFP permitted vessels are not penalized for landing prohibited species (e.g.,salmon, Pacific halibut, dungeness crab), and are not held liable for groundfish trip limit overages.

There is also a large Pacific whiting at-sea fishery off the Oregon Coast. Large factory trawlers harvest Pacific whiting and and process the fish on-board. Motherships also process fish at sea that are caught by smaller vessels and transferred

Other Oregon groundfish include lingcod, canary rockfish, Pacific ocean perch, darkblotched rockfish, yelloweye rockfish, widow rockfish, Dover sole, sablefish, and shortspine thornyhead.