The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife will hold three public meetings on the South Coast this month to talk about possible changes to the West Coast groundfish open-access fisheries rules.

Those changes could cut the number of commercial fishing boats.

The meetings will gather comments and answer questions on a proposed change to convert current open-access commercial groundfish fishery to a federal limited-entry permitted fishery. This fishery lands primarily sablefish (sometimes called black cod), along with rockfish and lingcod. ODFW staff members will gather people’s comments so they can better represent Oregon during the September meeting of the Pacific Fisheries Management Council in Boise.

The federal council’s goal is to transition the open-access fishery into one with limited permits for those who are most dependent on and committed to the fishery. The PFMC already has set a control date of Sept. 13, 2006, which would be used to decide eligibility requirements for the program.

Meetings are scheduled in the following places.

* Brookings: 7 to 9 p.m., Aug. 25, Best Western – Beachfront Inn, 16008 Boat Basin Road.

* Port Orford: 1 to 3 p.m., Aug. 26, Port Orford City Library, 15th Street and Highway 101.

* North Bend: 7 to 9 p.m., Aug. 26, North Bend Library, 1800 Sherman Ave.

For more information, call Gway Kirchner or Carla Sowell at (541) 867-4741 or go to the web site at http://www.pcouncil.org/groundfish/gffmp/gfa22.html.