Pacific Whiting (Hake) (Mercluccius productus)

• Population levels of Pacific whiting are high, and no overfishing is occurring.
• Strict federal and international management measures successfully completed the rebuilding of Pacific whiting in 2004. Current management measures include annual quotas to limit catch.
• Whiting is a good source of selenium, vitamin B, magnesium, and protein. For more information, see Nutrition Facts. (USDA)
• The Pacific whiting fishery is one of the largest in the United States. Pacific whiting is primarily made into surimi, a minced fish product used to make imitation crab and other products. Some whiting is also sold as fillets.

Sustainability Status

Biomass: Biomass of the coastal stock is 78% of the biomass needed to support maximum sustainable yield (B_MSY).
Overfishing: No
Overfished: No
Fishing and habitat: There are few habitat concerns in the Pacific whiting fishery, given that pelagic trawls have very little bottom habitat impact.
Bycatch: Pelagic trawls must have a codend mesh of at least 3 inches to prevent bycatch. Regulations also restrict the area and season of fishing to reduce the bycatch of Chinook salmon, canary rockfish, darkblotched rockfish, and widow rockfish.
Aquaculture: There is currently no aquaculture production of Pacific whiting in the United States.

Science and Management

Pacific whiting supports one of the most important commercial fisheries off the West Coast of the United States. There are three recognized stocks of Pacific whiting: a highly migratory offshore (or coastal) stock that ranges from southern Baja California to Queen Charlotte Sound, a central-south Puget Sound stock, and a Strait of Georgia stock. The latter two stocks are managed by state and local management agencies, but the offshore, or coastal, fishery in U.S. waters is managed by the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) through its Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan (FMP). Originally approved in 1982, the Groundfish FMP now manages over 90 different species through a number of measures, including harvest guidelines, quotas, trip and landing limits, area restrictions, seasonal closures, and gear restrictions (like minimum mesh size for nets). Annual quotas are the primary management tool used to limit the catch of whiting. In 1994, Amendment 6 to the Groundfish FMP established a limited entry program to restrict further participation in the groundfish fishery. All sectors of the groundfish fishery are currently constrained by the need to rebuild the groundfish species that have been declared overfished; because of the low biomass of some species, the overall groundfish harvest has been significantly reduced. Pacific whiting was declared overfished by the U.S. government in 2002. The stock was declared rebuilt and no longer depleted in 2004. The coast-wide (U.S. and Canada) Pacific whiting stock is assessed annually by a joint technical team of scientists from both countries.

In 2003, the United States and Canada signed an agreement that allocates a set percentage of the Pacific whiting catch to American and Canadian fishermen over the next decade and established a process for the review of science and the development of management recommendations. Beginning in late 2007, management of Pacific whiting and related science activities will be coordinated under the provisions of this international treaty with Canada.

The local and state-managed Puget Sound and Strait of Georgia stocks are "species of concern" - species that NOAA Fisheries Service has concerns about regarding population status and threats but has insufficient information to indicate a need to list the species under the Endangered Species Act. There has been no directed commercial fishery for this stock since 1991.

Life History and Habitat

Life history, including information on the habitat, growth, feeding, and reproduction of a species, is important because it affects how a fishery is managed.

• Geographic range: Pacific whiting are distributed off the west coast of North America from Southern Baja California and Gulf of California to the Gulf of Alaska. The coastal stock of Pacific whiting primarily ranges from southern California to the Queen Charlotte Islands. Commercially harvestable quantities of whiting are not available in the Gulf of Alaska.
• Habitat: Pacific whiting occur primarily in midwater schools, but have also been observed resting on the seafloor. The highest densities of Pacific whiting are usually at depths between 164 and 1,640 feet, but adults occur as deep as 3,018 feet and as far as 250 miles offshore.
• Life span: Up to 15 years.
• Food: Pacific whiting feed near the surface late at night and early in the morning. Larvae eat calanoid copepods (crustaceans), as well as their eggs and larvae. Juveniles and small adults feed on euphausiid shrimp. Adult Pacific whiting feed on on euphausiids, shrimp, squid, schooling fish, and sometimes juvenile whiting. As whiting grow larger, they become increasingly piscivorous (fish-eating).
• Growth rate: Females grow more rapidly than males after 4 years; both sexes stop growing at 10 to 13 years.
• Maximum size: Up to 36 inches in length.
• Reaches reproductive maturity: Females mature at 3 to 4 years of age (13 to 16 inches in length), and nearly all males are mature by 3 years of age (11 inches in length).
• Reproduction: Pacific whiting eggs are fertilized externally. Eggs hatch in 5 or 6 days, and within 3 to 4 months, juveniles grow to 1.4 inches. Juveniles move to deeper water as they get older.
• Spawning season: From December through March, peaking in late January.
• Spawning grounds: Off south-central California. However, in recent years spawning has also been recorded north of California as well as unusual numbers of juveniles.
• Migrations: Pacific whiting school in deep waters during the day and then move to the surface and disband at night to feed. After spawning in the winter, mature adults move northward and inshore following food supply and currents. Pacific whiting reach as far north as southern British Columbia by fall. Then they migrate south to spawning grounds further offshore.
• Predators: Whiting eggs and larvae are eaten by pollock, herring, invertebrates, and sometimes Pacific whiting. Juveniles are eaten by lingcod, Pacific cod, and rockfish species. Predators of adults include sablefish, albacore, pollock, Pacific cod, marine mammals, soupfin sharks, and spiny dogfish sharks.
• Commercial or recreational interest: Commercial
• Distinguishing characteristics: Pacific whiting is a roundfish that is silvery in color with black speckles on the back and black inside the mouth.

Role in the Ecosystem

Pacific whiting are an important prey item for sea lions, toothed whales, and sharks.

Additional Information

Market names: Whiting or Pacific whiting
Vernacular name: California hake, Pacific hake
Several other species are marketed as Whiting.

Biomass

Biomass refers to the amount of Pacific whiting in the ocean. Scientists cannot collect and weigh every single fish to determine biomass, so they use mathematical models to estimate it instead. These biomass estimates can help determine if a stock is being fished too heavily or if it may be able to tolerate more fishing pressure. Managers can then make appropriate changes in the regulations of the fishery. Biomass estimates of Pacific whiting increased briefly during the mid-1970s then declined briefly until 1980. Biomass increased again to the highest level recorded in 1983. The whiting population then experienced a long period of decline as fishing increased and few large recruitment events occurred between 1985 and 2001. Biomass increased by more than 150% between 2001 and 2002 as a strong 1999 year class entered the population but has since declined due to poor recruitments since. The stock has been rebuilt to its target level of abundance.

Spawning biomass (the amount of whiting that are able to reproduce) has followed a similar trend, peaking in 1984 then declining rapidly through 2000. Spawning biomass has increased somewhat since.

Note: Population biomass is the amount of Pacific whiting age 3 and over.

Landings

Landings refer to the amount of catch that is brought to land. The fishery for the coastal population of whiting occurs primarily during April-November along the coasts of northern California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. From 1966 to 2007, coastwide landings of Pacific whiting have averaged 219 thousand metric tons. Recent landings have been above the long term average, at approximately 364 and 276 thousand metric tons in 2006 and 2007, respectively. On average, the United States has caught almost 75% of the total landings over the time series, with Canadian catch averaging about 25% of the total landings, at 54 thousand metric tons.

Prior to 1989, U.S. catches were substantially below the harvest guideline, but since then, the entire harvest guideline has been caught nearly every year. The total U.S. catch has not significantly exceeded harvest guidelines, indicating that in-season management procedures have been very effective.

Biomass and Landings

Biomass and landings data can sometimes be used to detect trends in a fishery. They may influence each other, and factors such as changes in management measures, fishing effort, market preferences, or environmental conditions may impact landings and biomass as well.

Data sources:
Biomass and landings from the Stock Assessment of Pacific Hake (Whiting) in U.S. and Canadian Waters in 2008

Important Dates

1966 – Large scale harvesting of Pacific whiting in the U.S. zone begins when factory trawlers from the former Soviet Union begin targeting the species
1966-1979 – Catch in U.S. waters averages 137,000 tons per year
Mid 1970s – Factory trawlers from Poland, Federal Republic of Germany, the former German Democratic Republic, and Bulgaria participate in the whiting fishery
1978 – Joint-venture fishery initiated between two U.S. trawlers and Soviet factory trawlers acting as mother ships (where the catch from several boats is brought back to the larger, slower ship for processing and storage until return to land)
1982 – Joint-venture catch surpasses the foreign catch
Late 1980s – Joint-ventures involve fishing companies from Poland, Japan, former Soviet Union, Republic of Korea, and the People’s Republic of China
1989 – U.S. fleet capacity grows to a level sufficient to harvest the entire fishing quota; no foreign fishing is allowed; Canada allocates a portion of the whiting catch to joint-venture operations
1990s – Disagreements between U.S. and Canadian fisheries lead to quota overruns
1991 – All foreign and joint-venture participation in the groundfish fishery ends
1994 – Amendment 6 to the Groundfish FMP establishes a license limitation program (limited entry)
2003 – U.S. and Canada sign an agreement allocating a set percentage of the Pacific whiting catch to American and Canadian fishermen over the next decade

Notes and Links

General Information:
Pacific Fishery Management Council Primer on Groundfish

NOAA Fisheries Service Office of Protected Resources - Species of Concern

NOAA Fisheries Service Northwest Regional Office Groundfish Fishery Management page

Fishery Management:
Pacific Coast Groundfish Fishery Management Plan

NOAA Fisheries Service Northwest Regional Office - Whiting Fishery Management

Stock Assessments:
Stock Assessment of Pacific Hake (Whiting) in U.S. and Canadian Waters in 2008

2008 Report of the Joint Canadian and U.S. Pacific Hake/Whiting Stock Assessment Review Panel

Page last updated: August 20, 2009