FishWatch

Harvesting Rock Sole

Two species of rock sole—northern and southern—are caught within U.S. federal waters. The northern species (Lepidopsetta polyxystra) is more common in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, where their catch exceeded 60,000 tons in 2011. Both species are found in the Gulf of Alaska and the southern species (L. bilineata) is also found off the West Coast.

Almost all of the U.S. commercial harvest of rock sole comes from Alaska, mainly the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands area. Here, fishermen primarily use bottom trawls (a cone-shaped net towed across the bottom) to harvest rock sole. Because rock sole roe is highly valued in Asian markets, the majority (around 70 percent) of the harvest is caught in February and March when females are bearing eggs.

Management

Who’s in charge? NOAA Fisheries and the North Pacific Fishery Management Council
Current management: Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and Gulf of Alaska Groundfish Fishery Management Plans

• In Alaska, rock sole fisheries are managed separately, but similarly, in the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands and in the Gulf of Alaska.
• Fishermen must have a permit to participate in these fisheries, and the number of available permits is limited to control the amount of fishing.
• Every year, managers determine how much rock sole can be caught.
• In the Gulf of Alaska, rock sole is managed as part of the shallow-water flatfish group along with several other flatfish species.
• In the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, over 10 percent of the catch quota is allocated to the Community Development Quota Program, which benefits fishery-dependent communities in western Alaska. The rest is allocated among the various fishing sectors based on gear type, vessel size, and ability to process their catch. Catch is monitored through record keeping, reporting requirements, and observer monitoring.

Only a small amount of rock sole is harvested incidentally in groundfish fisheries operating off the West Coast. The Pacific fishery management Council has included the species in the Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan, but it is neither assessed nor directly managed.

Annual Harvest

In the Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands, yearly domestic catches have averaged 47,600 tons for the past 2 decades. Rock sole remain moderately harvested in this area – the 2011 estimated catch of 60,400 metric tons was around 70 percent of the annual catch limit of 85,000 metric tons.

In the Gulf of Alaska, rock sole are lightly harvested. Annual harvests of northern and southern rock sole are usually less than 5,000 metric tons. In general, the flatfish fishery is limited by bycatch limits for Pacific halibut.

A small amount of rock sole are harvested incidentally in fisheries for other groundfish off the West Coast.

Economy

Approximately 80 to 90 percent of the sole harvested in the Alaska groundfish fisheries is shipped to Asia. Rock sole are the target of a high-value roe fishery, which accounts for the majority of the annual catch in the Bering Sea–Aleutian Islands area. Rock sole with roe are exported to Japan, where they are sold whole with their roe as a supermarket staple.

Male rock sole are exported to China, where they are filleted and exported back to the United States. Chinese re-processors tend to export fillets of small rock sole and yellowfin sole in the same pack.