"The decade of change challenging Oregon's commercial fishing industry includes the potential for development of a new fishery that could generate 86millioninincometocoastalcommunitiesandupto114 million coastwide if catches of Pacific whiting were landed and processed onshore. At the same time, the industry is also facing the loss of one of its most important and profitable fisheries, the catching of Pacific whiting for delivery to processing ships from foreign countries such as the U.S.S.R. and Japan. Both of these developments involve a small, two-pound dark gray, soft-textured fish, called Pacific whiting, or hakethe most abundant fish off the West Coast. More than half of the fish off the West Coast are whiting, making it the region's largest ocean biomass. Responding to the direction provided by the 1989 Oregon Legislature to assure the development of a Pacific whiting fishery for Oregon shore-based production as part of the state's economy, a joint public and private investigative project was begun under the direction of the Oregon Coastal Zone Management Association, Inc. (OCZMA). Resulting from that effort, this executive summary examines the feasibility of the development of a Pacific whiting fishery for Oregon." (From Preface
