Alaska Commercial Fishing Permits for Rockfish Cooperative Fishing Quota

Have you been looking to get into Alaskan rockfish fishing? Does it seem like there are so many Alaskan fishing rules and regulations that it’s hard to keep all of them straight? If that’s the case, you aren’t alone. When we started the Commercial Fishing Permits Center, we wanted to make a site where commercial fishing professionals could go for the forms that they needed. While we offer a wide variety of Alaska Commercial Fishing Permits forms (among others) in this blog, we’ll cover forms for the Rockfish Cooperative Fishing Quota. 

How These Alaska Commercial Fishing Permits Work 

Essentially, the idea is that a quota share (with the abbreviation “QS”) is assigned by the Rockfish Program to License Limitation Plan (LLP) licenses for rockfish secondary and primary species. These determinations are more or less determined by legal landings that are associated with that particular lIcense Limitation Plan. Annually, an LLP license holder assigns the LLP license with a rockfish quota share to a rockfish cooperative. In turn, each of those cooperatives then is told what amount of primary as well as secondary rockfish species the cooperative will be able to harvest that year. This is called an “annual cooperative fishing quota,” or “CQ.” If you have any questions about how this works, our staff will be more than happy to answer them. 

What Species They Cover 

“Alaska Rockfish” is the simple answer, but really, it’s incomplete. That’s because there are, as mentioned, Primary rockfish species as well as Secondary rockfish species. The latter include Pacific cod, of course. But, other, perhaps less well-known Secondary rockfish species are shortraker rockfish, sablefish, rough eye rockfish, and thorny head rockfish. Primary rockfish species are Pacific ocean perch, dusky rockfish, and northern rockfish, respectively. Those are the kinds of Alaskan rockfish that this permit covers. 

What Else to Know 

The rockfish cooperative fishing season does not last forever. Indeed, it’s authorized from May 1st through November 15th. If you’re a shore-based processor that receives rockfish CQ, you have to be located within the boundaries of the City of Kodiak. You might be saying at this point: “I’m a catcher/processor LLP license holder. Can I opt-out of this Rockfish program?” Yes, you can. But, you’ll be subject to certain sideboard limitations. These limitations can keep rockfish-eligible harvesters from participating in fisheries other than the Central GOA rockfish fisheries. 

Commercial Fishing Permits for Alaska and Beyond 

The above covered quite a bit of information. If you’re just getting started with Alaskan rockfish, you may have read that and still had questions. This is exactly the sort of scenario that we created the Commercial Fishing Permits Center to be able to help with. Here, you’ll be able to ask questions of our highly-trained staff. Backed by years of experience, they can answer the questions on your mind. In fact, they can even stay on the phone with you, going through the forms, line by line. For more, call us at (866) 292-4204.