Enhancing Biodiversity: Sustainable Fisheries & Thriving Marine Ecosystems
California’s iconic coastal and marine ecosystems inspire a sense of wonder and provide ocean-based livelihoods, sustainable seafood, cultural opportunities and recreation to tens of millions of Californians.
California will continue to advance the sustainability of its marine fisheries and ensure biodiverse fish and wildlife populations through science-based, collaborative management. Advancing the long-term sustainability of these fisheries offers co-benefits of protecting marine ecosystems, port communities, and coastal economies, particularly in the face of a changing climate.
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The Strategic Plan to Protect California’s Coast & Ocean includes four goals — Climate Change, Equity, Biodiversity, and a Blue Economy— which guide OPC’s efforts between 2020-2025 to catalyze, coordinate, and align key statewide policies, plans, and targets. Through collaborative leadership, strategic investments, and policy development, California’s Ocean Protection Council is committed to safeguarding our coastal and marine ecosystems, thriving fisheries and fish and wildlife populations, and biodiversity.
Currently Funded Projects
- Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group
- California Disentanglement Trainings
- West Coast Entanglement Science Workshop
- California Entanglement Response Network Support
- California Drift Gillnet Transition Program Support
- Reducing the Risk of Entanglement in Fishing Gear Competitive Grant Program
- Gear Innovations Testing in the Commercial Dungeness Crab Fishery
- Small Vessel Surveys
- Whale Abundance Data Assessment
- Solar Logger Pilot Project
- California Fisheries Portal Development
- Box Crab Pilot Project: Electronic Monitoring for an Experimental Box Crab Fishery
- Data-limited Methods Toolkit
- California Fisheries Fund
- Kelp Aerial Surveys, 2020
- Habitat characterization, fishery development and stock structure of swordfish off California
- A multi-faceted approach to enhance sustainability of the California spiny lobster fishery
- Reconstructing the population dynamics of southern California Paralabrax species in the face of a changing ocean
- Improving management under the Marine Life Management Act (MLMA) by accounting for effects of Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) on fisheries
- Sea feeds: Identification and culture of Californian marine macroalgae capable of reducing greenhouse gas production from ruminant livestock
- A DNA metabarcoding approach to monitoring fish spawning and population connectivity in Coastal Southern and Central California
Protecting Whales & Sea Turtles and Ensuring Thriving Fisheries: Reducing the Risk of Entanglement in California Fishing Gear
- Visit our webpage here to learn more about OPC’s work to protect whales and sea turtles and ensuring thriving fisheries in California through reducing the risk of entanglement in California fishing gear.
Dungeness Crab Task Force & Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group
Completed Projects
- Sea Lion & Seal Rescue and Rehabilitation
- Recreational Red Abalone Management Strategies Integration
- Marine Species Synthesis Reports
- California Fisheries Portal Focus Groups
- Socioeconomic Guidance for California Fisheries Management
- Scientific Peer Review: Guidance & Recommendations for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
- California Track of Fish 2.0
- Marine Landings Database System
- Ecological Risk Assessment Productivity and Susceptibility Analysis
- Harmful Algal Blooms
- Readying California Fisheries for a Changing Climate
For an archive of completed fisheries projects, please visit here.
Resolutions
- Resolution Supporting Innovative Approaches to Sustainable Fisheries Management (adopted November 2006)
- Resolution on the Advancement of Fisheries Management and Support of Fishing Communities (adopted November 2013)
Resources
- Marine Life Management Act (MLMA)
- MLMA Master Plan (updated 2018)
- Guide to California’s Marine Life Management Act, Second Edition
- Strategy for Protecting Whales and Sea Turtles and Ensuring Thriving Fisheries: Reducing the Risk of Entanglement in California Fishing Gear
- West Coast Entanglement Science Workshop