Coupled changes in biomass and distribution drive trends in availability of fish stocks to US West Coast ports

Abstract Fishing communities are increasingly required to adapt to environmentally driven changes in the availability of fish stocks. Here, we examined trends in the distribution and biomass of five commercial target species (dover sole, thornyheads, sablefish, lingcod, and petrale sole) on the US west coast to determine how their availability to fishing ports changed over 40 years. We show that the timing and magnitude of stock declines and recoveries are not experienced uniformly along the coast when they coincide with shifts in species distributions. For example, overall stock availability of sablefish was more stable in southern latitudes where a 40% regional decline in biomass was counterbalanced by a southward shift in distribution of >200 km since 2003. Greater vessel mobility and larger areal extent of fish habitat along the continental shelf buffered northerly ports from latitudinal changes in stock availability. Landings were not consistently related to stock availability, suggesting that social, economic, and regulatory factors likely constrain or facilitate the capacity for fishers to adapt to changes in fish availability. Coupled social–ecological analyses such as the one presented here are important for defining community vulnerability to current and future changes in the availability of important marine species.