Trawlers return to Pacific fishing area in rare environmental success story

With stocks rebounding, regulators have reopened a groundfish habitat off the west coast - with environmentalists' support

A rare environmental success story is unfolding in waters off the US west coast.

After years of fear and uncertainty, bottom trawler fishermen - those who use nets to catch rockfish, bocaccio, sole, Pacific Ocean perch and other deep-dwelling fish - are making a comeback here, reinventing themselves as a sustainable industry less than two decades after authorities closed huge stretches of the Pacific Ocean because of the species' depletion.