Both cowcod and bocaccio are overfished stocks that are being rebuilt under the Federal West Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan
that is administered by the Pacific Fishery Management Council
. In fact, the Cowcod Conservation Areas where no fishing can occur deeper than 20 fathoms (~37 meters), was created to help recover cowcod populations, which are found from about 70-350 meters in depth, primarily in the Southern California Bight. Bocaccio are found coast-wide, from British Columbia into Mexico, from 20-250 meters in depth.
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Cowcod and Bocaccio Rockfish
(NOTE:This video does not contain audio)
Quicktime (35.6 MB) l Windows Media (Streaming)
This video shows a large school of cowcod and bocaccio rockfish found at 89 meters. The footage was taken using a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) at Forty-three Fathom Bank in the Cowcod Conservation Area off of San Diego, CA, by scientists at the Southwest Fisheries Science Center. The red dots in the video are produced by two parallel lasers attached to the ROV. The lasers are exactly 10 cm apart, and the scientists use them to help estimate the size of fish underwater.
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