California manages our fisheries so well that we set a gold standard for much of the world. It is all about sustainability and helping problem fisheries to abundance. Here is how we do it:
State jurisdiction in ocean waters spans from the coast to three miles offshore, and federal jurisdiction spans from three miles to 200 miles offshore.
As a result, the fishery is jointly managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) and the NOAA Fisheries Service through the Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC).
These agencies employ individuals trained in fisheries biology, statistics, economics, or resource management.
Stock assessments are a critical management tool for monitoring the abundance of fish populations, as well as for predicting the consequences of policy decisions.
A stock assessment is a review of the size and health of fish populations to support management of a species or fishery. It considers all available information on abundance, distribution, age structure, and other biological or environmental factors, and explores future outcomes of management alternatives and the associated uncertainty and risk of each action. This is the brainstorming part of the process.
The extensive amount of information in fishery stock assessments comes from catch data, fishery-independent surveys, and biological knowledge.
Assessments are used to set harvest limits based on whether the stock’s status is determined to be “healthy,” “precautionary,” or “overfished.”
A stock is declared “overfished” when its population size falls below a certain level.
For most groundfish, this level is 25 percent of the population’s “unfished biomass,” or the size the stock would be if there was no fishing permitted. For other species, the “overfished” threshold is 30 percent unfished biomass.
In the absence of sufficient information for an assessment, harvest limits are set based on historic landings.
The aim of a fishery stock assessment is to determine the historical and current status of a resource, and to establish the level at which it may be sustainably used.
Once a stock assessment is complete, the appropriate harvest limit is determined for that particular fish stock.
For most fisheries in state waters, state and federal harvest limits are the same. California’s management guidelines can be set equal to, or more stringent than federal guidelines; however, they cannot be more lenient.
In the case of “overfished” species, the harvest limit is set to a level aimed toward rebuilding the species population.
Strict management measures are adopted for both commercial and recreational user groups when a fish stock is declared “overfished,” because overfished stocks need to rebuild as quickly as possible.
Because overfished species may live among healthy species and cannot be singled out for harvest, the harvest limit must be set low enough that overfished species are minimally impacted while preserving as much fishing opportunity as possible on healthy stocks.
Often, fishing for healthy stocks is limited by depth, time or area due to this inability to single out a target species.
The California Fish and Game Commission and PFMC make allocation decisions for state and federal water respectively, and their outcomes can have long term effects on coastal communities.
People who fish for food want robust fish populations and access to them.