Consumers will be getting more of Hawaii’s bottomfish this coming season, which begins Sept. 1, after the regional fishery council increased the catch limit.

During a three-day meeting last week, the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council set the catch limit for seven deep-water fish at 325,000 pounds, a 20 percent increase over last season’s 254,000-pound quota.

"At this point in time, based on the assessment, the stock is actually starting to improve based on the past five years of management," said Mark Mitsuyasu, council program officer.

He said the latest quota is about 15 percent smaller than a 383,000-pound figure the council released in March, but that’s because the council adopted a new conservative method for calculating the catch limit.

Mitsuyasu said the new method meets a requirement set by Congress in 2006. It takes the total allowable catch and reduces it by 9 percent for a margin of error in the stock assessment and adds another 6 percent reduction for social and economic reasons. The 6 percent cut is meant to give the manager time to close the fishery before the catch limit is reached.

Currently, the state has a monthly catch reporting system, which means the fishery could remain open for about a month even if the catch limit has been reached, Mitsuyasu said.

"The bottom line is from 2010 to this year, there’s a bump up," in the catch limit, Mitsuyasu said. "The stock is not overfished and there is no overfishing going on."

He said experts are trying to build the species’ base biomass, which increases the yearly allowable catch. The quotas refer to the surplus in the stock that can be taken out and still allow the stock to replenish itself.

The 2011-2012 bottom-fishing season will remain open until the quota is reached. Of the past four years, the longest seasons were the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 seasons when the fishery remained open for 7.75 months. The latest bottom-fishing closure for commercial, recreational and subsistence use was March 12 after a 6 1/2-month run.

Bottomfish species are usually found at a depth of 300 to 900 feet. The covered species include opakapaka, onaga, hapuupuu, ehu, kalekale, gindai and lehi.