This is a brief guide to commonly caught commercial seafood species in Oregon. Fishing statistics were last updated in January 2025 with 2024 landings data from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. Assembled by Oregon Sea Grant Extension Agents, Jamie Doyle, Angee Doerr, and Amanda Gladics.
Landings in Oregon's Three major ports in 2024
Seafood Pounds Landed 2024
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67% Astoria (184,944,561 lbs)
18% Newport (49,987,087 lbs)
11% Charleston (31,323,275 lbs)
1% Brookings (1,354,424 lbs)
3% Other (8,086,662 lbs)
Seafood Ex-Vessel Value 2024
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37% Astoria ($68,218,525)
32% Newport ($59,44,300)
14% Charleston ($24,804,595)
2% Brookings ($4,196,583)
15% Other ($27,045,952)
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Albacore Tuna
Habitat & Life History
- Ocean fish that swim in large schools
- Migrate across the ocean
- Top predators
- Warm blooded
- Broadcast spawners
- Live 11 to 12 years
Gear & Fishing
- Trolling (pulling hooks and lines through the water)
- Jigs
- Individually landed and bled
Pounds & Value 2024
- Oregon: 4,982,928 lbs worth $8,312,329
Management
Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission
Season
July-Sept depending on when the tuna arrive off Oregon
Fun Facts
- Swim in schools up to 19 miles wide
- Caught young, so have low levels of mercury
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Pacific Halibut
Habitat & Life History
- A “flatfish” that lives near on the bottom of the ocean
- Oregon is the edge of their range, most are in British Columbia and Alaska
Gear & Fishing
- Long-lines
Management
- International Pacific Halibut Commission
- 32-inch minimum size to protect juvenile halibut
Pounds & Value 2024
- Oregon: 236,518 lbs worth $1,244,648
Season
June-July (very short- 3-day openers)
Fun Facts
- The left eye switches to the right side while the fish grows! Only 1 in 20,000 are lefties
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Dungeness Crab
Habitat & Life History
- After a planktonic larval stage, crab settle to the bottom
- They are scavengers
- They molt to grow larger and can molt up to six times a year when young
- Live up to 10 years, harvested at four years
Gear & Fishing
- Crab pots
Management
- 3 S’s:
- Size – Their carapace must be over 6.25”
- Sex – Only males can be kept, allowing females to carry eggs and reproduce
- Season – December through August, with most caught in the first 8 weeks
- Limited entry (set number of permits) and pot limit up to 500 pots
Pounds & Value 2024
- Oregon: 23,927,745 lbs worth $99,548,813
Season
- Dec 1 – Aug 14, the bulk of the landings are Dec-Feb
Fun Facts
- A female crab can carry up to 2.5 million eggs!
- Oregon has a “State Crustacean” It’s the Dungeness Crab.
- Crabs walk side-ways, and if they lose a leg, they can grow a new one.
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Chinook Salmon
Habitat & Life History
- Anadromous: from stream, to ocean, to home stream to spawn.
- They spend 4-5 years in the ocean
- All salmon harvested in Oregon is wild-caught, there are no salmon farms in Oregon. Hatchery fish are released at a young age, spend the rest of their life in the wild, and are considered wild-caught.
Gear & Fishing
- Trolling (pulling hooks and lines through the water)
Pounds & Value 2024
- Oregon: 1,423,162 lbs worth $6,534,026
Management
- Pacific Fisheries Management Council
- Closures vary widely by location
Season
- Spring, summer, fall
Fun Facts
- Salmon returning a year earlier than the rest of their year class are called “jacks”
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Rockfish
Habitat & Life History
- 60 different species of rockfish (22 landed commercially in Oregon), that have a variety of different habitats and behaviors.
- Generally, these are long-lived fish that do not reproduce until they are 20+ years old.
- Live in rocky-reef habitats
- Average market size is between 2-5 lbs
Gear & Fishing
- Hook-and- line, longline, and trawl
Season
-
Year-round
Pounds & Value 2024
- Oregon: 24,098,530 lbs worth $6,503,515
Management
- Part of the “groundfish” group - 90 species that is managed together because they are frequently caught together.
- Pacific Fishery Management Council
Fun Facts
- In 2013, someone caught a 200-year-old rockfish!
- Fish are aged using their ear bones, or otoliths, which put on seasonal rings like a tree trunk.
- Rockfish have live young, which is rare for fish. Older, larger females have larger numbers and healthier babies.
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Lingcod
Habitat & Life History
- Groundfish are found on the bottom near rocky reefs
- Voracious predators that let their prey come to them, and lie in wait for unsuspecting fish, crab, and octopuses
- Spend most of their adult lives within a three-square mile area
Gear &Fishing
- Hook-and- line, longline, and trawl
Season
- Year-round
Pounds & Value 2024
- Oregon: 1,123,799 lbs worth $1,305,126
Management
- Pacific Fishery Management Council
- Lingcod were declared “over fished” in 1999, meaning populations dropped below sustainable levels. Management changes were put in place, and by 2005, lingcod populations increased and they were declared “rebuilt” and are now fished today.
Fun Facts
The fillets can be blue! (but turn white when cooked). Nobody really knows why, but it is likely linked to their diet.
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Sablefish
Habitat & Life History
- Deepwater fish, 650-9,800 ft
- No air swim bladder, they use oil to maintain buoyancy.
- Can live almost a century!
Gear & Fishing
- Longline, sablefish pot, trawl
Pounds & Value 2024
- Oregon: 6,034,517 lbs worth $5,244,771
Management
- Pacific Fisheries Management Council.
- Each separate gear type comes with its own rules and regulations, including permits and catch limits.
Season
- Year-round, but higher quantities between April and November
Fun Facts
- Most are exported to Japan
- Sperm whales eat sablefish and will dive into very deep waters to eat them. Some sperm whales have even learned how to pick them off fishermen's longlines.
- Sablefish have very high levels of Omega-3s, up to 50% more than salmon!
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Pink Shrimp
Habitat & Life History
- Small cold-water shrimp that live to four years
- Lives on soft ocean bottom in fairly shallow water
- Protandric hermaphrodite: they change sex from males to females.
Gear & Fishing
- Trawl caught, sometimes with a “double rigger”, meaning it pulls two nets, one off of each side.
- Shrimp migrate up off the bottom at night to feed, so vessels don’t fish at night.
Season
- April- October
Pounds & Value 2024
- Oregon: 49,439,797 lbs worth $26,626,565
Management
- Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
- Must be over a certain size (<160 per pound) so only older shrimp are harvested
- Not fished during the reproductive times in the winter
Fun Facts
- “Doors” keep a trawl net open as it’s pulled through the water. Wooden doors are for shrimp, metal doors for groundfish.
- It is a very “clean” shrimp fishery, there is very little bycatch, due to the Bycatch Reduction Devices (i.e., excluder devices)
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Hagfish
Habitat & Life History
- Bottom dwelling
- Ancient, jawless fish
- Began as a fishery for the skin, but now is for consumption.
Gear & Fishing
- Barrel pot traps
Pounds & Value 2024
- Oregon: 197,244 lbs worth $236,189
Season
-
Year-round
Management
- Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
- Open access (no permit required), but 200 trap limit
- Traps have an escape mechanism in case they are lost at sea, to prevent “ghost fishing”
Fun Facts
- Most are shipped to South Korea
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Sole
Habitat & Life History
- Most of the ~10 species of sole landed in Oregon are Dover or Petrale
- Petrale sole:
- Small flatfish with an olive top side and a white underbelly.
- Two rows of teeth on their top jaw, but only one on the bottom.
- Live in deep waters.
- Dover sole
- Medium size flatfish
- Very slippery skin (otherwise known as slime sole)
- Very small mouth
Gear & Fishing
- Trawl
Pounds & Value 2024
- Petrale:
- Oregon: 4,157,587 lbs worth $4,944,001
- Dover:
- Oregon: 5,660,447 lbs worth $2,525,063
Management
- Pacific Fisheries Management Council, as part of “groundfish”, a group of 90+ species that live on or near the bottom and are managed together because they are often caught together.
- Petrale sole was declared “over fished” in 2009, but with management were considered recovered by 2015.
Season
- Year-round, more abundant in winter
Fun Facts
- Petrale sole move into shallower waters for spawning, (still pretty deep) in huge aggregations in January.
- All flatfish are born swimming upright and with an eye on both sides of their head. As they grow, one eye migrates to the other side, and the fish starts to swim on its side on the bottom.
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Whiting / Pacific Hake
Habitat & Life History
- Mid-water pelagic schooling species, found in the California Current.
- Little is known about their reproduction, but they are very abundant.
Gear & Fishing
- Mid-water trawl
- At-sea catcher-processors, also known as factory trawlers, out of Newport and Astoria
Pounds & Value
- Oregon: 147,670,955 lbs worth $16,256,365
Management
- Pacific Fisheries Management Council
Fun Facts
- Whiting is made into surimi, the fish paste used to make imitation crab meat “Krab” and other products
Animal sketches by Tom Crestodina.